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2025 PIAA DISTRICT ONE TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
POSTSEASON HAS ARRIVED FOR SOL TEAMS
By Glenn Kaiser
The District One AAA Duals are the annual start of the postseason here in the SOL as many teams will wrestle in the upcoming D1 Team Championship, which start Thursday with first-round matchups hosted by the higher seeded teams. In fact, half of the 16-team field are SOL teams with Quakertown the surprising #1-seed. They will take on the Pioneer Athletic Conference’s Methacton, another surprise at #16, the last of four PAC teams. Boyertown comes in as the #2-seed and will host #15 Neshaminy Thursday night at 7:00pm.
Quakertown jumped ahead of Boyertown most likely with their performance at the Parkland Duals in which they lost a close one to powerful Northampton from the Lehigh Valley 33-28, while Boyertown lost to the Konkrete Kids by a larger margin, 37-22. The Panthers are 8-2 overall and 2-0 in SOL Liberty action hot off a win over Hatboro-Horsham 40-24 last week and a 15th place team performance at this past weekend’s Escape the Rock tournament. Q-town’s Colin Gaj was crowned the champ at 160-pounds in the main event, downing Chantilly’s (VA) Benjamin Weader in major fashion 10-1. Weader will join Gaj at Virginia Tech next year as incoming freshmen recruits. Gaj clearly established he will be the man to beat in the room for the Hokies.
There has been tremendous parity throughout the SOL and the rest of D1 this dual meet season. In-fact, certain SOL teams are ranked ahead of other teams that they lost to previously, and this trend carried over to all of D1 in this unusual dual environment. Both Council Rock schools are solidified in the top-four at #3 and #4 with CRS the #3 seed and CRN at #4. Thus, they are separated in the bracket. Some believed South could have been the #1 seed, but they have not presented their best lineup yet on the mat. Superstar Anthony Mutarelli has been absent for the Golden Hawks, and that creates doubt for some of how good they really are with or without him. They will host an improving #14-seed Owen J Roberts, who some thought did not deserve to be in with their numerous losses to other teams in the field. Nonetheless, they are in, and Dean Bechtold the would be #1-ranked heavyweight by AAA by PA Power is expected to return Thursday night at CRS.
North on the other hand has done nothing but impress so far season with their ridiculous schedule. They will host the Central League’s Haverford. The Fords are the #13-seed with a 12-1 record/2-0 in league duals. Their highlight win over Garnet Valley 34-27 most likely got them in. Garnet is actually seeded higher at #11 and will travel to wrestle a solid #6 seeded team in Pennsbury. Pennsbury is dangerous, and they have District One Dual experience in recent years having made the Elite-8 in 2022. Souderton is seeded in the nine-hole with the #10-seed. Pennridge is right behind them after the Indians downed the Rams recently, rather handily 40-25. The ‘Ridge has had an inconsistent lineup this season and is not as strong with star-power with Talon Hogan not on the mat this year due to injury. However, they can never be counted out, as they have made the PIAA state bracket the past-two seasons as runners-up last year with a 4th place finish and D1 Champs in 2023. Pennridge will make a long drive out to #7 Sun Valley from the Ches-Mont.
Souderton most likely got the higher seed over both Pennridge, who they beat, and over Hatboro-Horsham to whom they lost to 34-30 early this season, as they come in hot with 14 wins to 5 losses and the clear favorites to win the SOL Colonial. Souderton, who is surging, will face an always rugged #8 Spring-Ford team, who have also come on strong here at the end. They are clearly seeded based on their history, and the toughness of their PAC schedule. You can never count them out either, but they are clearly overseeded here with Souderton. This will be the most closely contested match of the first-round.
#12 Hatboro-Horsham is only 3-4 overall, with those losses all coming to teams in the championship, and two of their wins are over Souderton and Neshaminy, both wrestling here. The H-H Wrestling Warriors will have to travel the furthest of any team in the D1 Duals to face #5 Oxford, the second team in these duals from the Ches-Mont. H-H is a solid tournament team that looks to make their mark as a dual meet team this season. They could very well be the spoilers here as a dark horse to advance from the twelve spot, historically a team out of the top-10 advances to the quarterfinals of this tournament.
Thus, it looks like the odds are in favor of a couple if not more teams from the SOL to advance all the way to the PIAA (AAA) Team Championship portion, which has changed a bit, and drastically with where it will be wrestled. For sure there will be a handful of SOL teams moving on to Upper Dublin HS for the D1 Duals finals on February 1, 2025 after Thursday’s action.
The breakdown in League representation pits eight SOL teams against four PAC teams, two Ches-Mont and two Central League teams. No SOL team will go head-to-head with another SOL team. This makes sense and was actually a seeding rule back in the old days, either way it just worked out this way this year that no team will face any team from their own league in first round action.
PREDICTIONS:
ROUND 1:
#1 Quakertown over #16 Methacton handily.
#2 Boyertown over #15 Neshaminy easily.
#3 Council Rock South over #14 Owen J Roberts as just a warm-up.
#4 CR North over #13 Haverford in a blow-out.
#5 Oxford over #12 Hatboro-Horsham in a highly contested bout.
#6 Pennsbury over #11 Garnet Valley with a hard-earned effort.
#7 Sun Valley over #10 Pennridge in a dogfight.
#9 Souderton over #8 Spring-Ford in a nail-bitter.
I always have our SOL teams as the favorites, so don’t beat me up about my picks, they are for entertainment only. I will make my finals picks after Thursday’s action, see you on the mats.
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