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PA States brackets and worthless predictions

AA 152 seeds:
1 – Caleb Dowling, SW-1, St. Joe’s, 40-4 – S3, #11
2 – Sully Allen, NW-1, Sharon, 35-2 – S5
3 – Ben Haubert, SE-1, Palisades, 37-3
4 – Wes Barnes, NE-1, Southern Columbia, 36-9

Others – top half:
Tyler Martin, SE-2, Bishop McDevitt, 36-4

Others – bottom half:
AJ Corrado, SW-2, Burrell, 42-7 – S5

College commits: Dowling (West Virginia), Allen (Edinboro), Martin (Binghamton), Trenton Harder (Army)

Dowling is the class of the weight. Last year’s 3rd was deceiving – he beat the defending champ (Haubert) and lost 3-0 to the eventual champ (Cerniglia’s only regular decision win in Hershey).

Prediction:
1 - Dowling
2 – Haubert
3 – Corrado
4 – Allen
5 - Barnes

3 Kids out of D3 Section 1 plus Collier outta Line Mountain means I'll watch this bracket pretty intently.
 
Lynn wrestled for Warrior Run early 70s maybe. Wrestled when Caslow was coaching there. Came to Philipsburg-Osceola to teach and be an assistant for Cas. Eventually moved back to Warrior Run area to take over his dad's construction business. He is good friends with Matt Brown's in-laws
That's before my time. Lol
 
Adding the College commitments is above and beyond.
That was actually relatively easy. Pinfall Recruiting has an online database of all active HS wrestlers who have committed -- all states, all years in one place. And it has a column for AA vs. AAA.

Copy/paste into Excel, filter out the other states, sort by weight ... voila.

Figuring out the rest of the podium at 106 and HWT ... too much effort.

Speaking of too much effort: I did not attempt to figure out possible consolations matchups -- so if I picked a 3rd/4th match that will occur in the consi semis, whoops.
 
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That was actually relatively easy. Pinfall Recruiting has an online database of all active HS wrestlers who have committed -- all states, all years in one place. And it has a column for AA vs. AAA.

Copy/paste into Excel, filter out the other states, sort by weight ... voila.

Figuring out the rest of the podium at 106 and HWT ... too much effort.

Speaking of too much effort: I did not attempt to figure out possible consolations matchups -- so if I picked a 3rd/4th match that will occur in the consi semis, whoops.
I don't follow High School heavily. I try to catch PA Duals on Flo, that let's me play catch-up a little bit heading into individual states. Then you just provided the Cliff's Notes for watching this week, and the future college affiliations is where I really start following these guys (thanks!).
These next three weeks, I'm going to be doing my actual job at odd hours :). Best time of the year.
 
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But if you were at the Louvre today, and had to make picks, it would be of no help. Art is in the eye of the beholder.
 
The 106 brackets are my favorite year after year. It’s a wrestle off for supremacy of the top young guys in the sport. So many top wrestler make a pit stop at 106 along the way - taylor, Zahid, Lee, nolf, zpain, yanni. Watch out for Bollman in AA, will have Pepe in the semis but has been dominant at both the state duals and post season. In AAA there are so many talented kids, will not be surprised to be surprised.
 
The 106 brackets are my favorite year after year. It’s a wrestle off for supremacy of the top young guys in the sport. So many top wrestler make a pit stop at 106 along the way - taylor, Zahid, Lee, nolf, zpain, yanni. Watch out for Bollman in AA, will have Pepe in the semis but has been dominant at both the state duals and post season. In AAA there are so many talented kids, will not be surprised to be surprised.

I feel the same way. My favorite 106 pound bracket was back in 2012.
AAA 1st Ethan Lizak 2nd Mike Kemerer 7th Vincenzo Joseph
AA 1st Darian Cruz

That was a pretty good weight class.,
 
I feel the same way. My favorite 106 pound bracket was back in 2012.
AAA 1st Ethan Lizak 2nd Mike Kemerer 7th Vincenzo Joseph
AA 1st Darian Cruz

That was a pretty good weight class.,

Also in the same AAA bracket at 106:
4th-Scott Parker-Lehigh; 6th-Jack Gromacki-Clarion, 3rd-Dom Forys-Pitt, 5th-Zach Fuentes-Drexel,
DNP- Zack Elvin-Navy, Tyrone Klump-NC
 
That's before my time. Lol
Warrior Run guys might like this bit of history. One of the wrestlers shown is George Cronrath. He became Warrior Run's first state champion. As a junior he was the undefeated champion at 145 lbs. That was back in the days when there weren't AA and AAA classes. He was the PA state champion.

As a senior, he seemed to be well on his way to a second state championship at 154. But...his dad, who was a part time cop, caught him with a beer. He told the coach (Bohner). He was kicked off the team. Years later, tragically, he was killed in an auto accident.



http://www.pawrsl.com/pa/bohnerwr.pdf
 
The 106 brackets are my favorite year after year. It’s a wrestle off for supremacy of the top young guys in the sport. So many top wrestler make a pit stop at 106 along the way - taylor, Zahid, Lee, nolf, zpain, yanni. Watch out for Bollman in AA, will have Pepe in the semis but has been dominant at both the state duals and post season. In AAA there are so many talented kids, will not be surprised to be surprised.
I’m not sure this is true. That would suggest that there are so many others that win championships at many different weights. Interesting....

;)
 
Warrior Run guys might like this bit of history. One of the wrestlers shown is George Cronrath. He became Warrior Run's first state champion. As a junior he was the undefeated champion at 145 lbs. That was back in the days when there weren't AA and AAA classes. He was the PA state champion.

As a senior, he seemed to be well on his way to a second state championship at 154. But...his dad, who was a part time cop, caught him with a beer. He told the coach (Bohner). He was kicked off the team. Years later, tragically, he was killed in an auto accident.



http://www.pawrsl.com/pa/bohnerwr.pdf
I went to school with his son Pete Conrath who was two years ahead of me. I used to listen to old George and big Bobby Simpson talk about wrestling and how it was started in PA. Great men. Great character. I went to school with little Bobby Simpson. Took second at states four years in a row. Thanks for the story
 
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Any chance the Freshman Frontino can make some noise here? 2-TF’s, a major, and a pin to get to Hershey!

AAA 138 seeds:
1 – Dashawn Farber, NE-1, Nazareth, 33-8 – S2, #20
2 – Wyatt Henson, SW-1, Waynesburg Central, 46-4 – S5, state champ (Missouri), #8
3 – Kibwe McNair, SE-1, Methacton, 29-1
4 – Riley Bower, NW-1, Williamsport, 33-4
5 – Dominic Frontino, SC-1, Shippensburg, 32-8

Others – top half:
Sam Hillegas, SW-2, North Hills, 35-2 – 2x state champ, #2

Others – bottom half: (none)

College commits: Hillegas (VT), Henson (Iowa 2021), Farber (Lock Haven), McNair (Kutztown), Steven Storm (Lehigh), TT Elhajj (Bloomsburg), Dominic Falcone (Army 2021)

Hillegas vs. Farber -- in the quarters! Only in PA ...

Hillegas and Henson split matches this year – Hilegas 8-3 at Powerade, Henson 4-3 at SW Regionals. Any other finals matchup would be a major surprise, with Farber being the only other real candidate.

Prediction:
1 – Hillegas
2 – Henson
3 – Farber
 
I am really excited to see how Bellefonte is going to do with 6 wrestlers at the state trournament. The scary thing is that only one of them is a senior and they should have 5 state qualifiers on their roster next year.

Care to give an overview of the Bellefonte wrestlers going? I saw they had a great week at regionals so I looked up their records but got any insight how far any of them will go or expectations for some of the younger guys going forward?
 
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Also in the same AAA bracket at 106:
4th-Scott Parker-Lehigh; 6th-Jack Gromacki-Clarion, 3rd-Dom Forys-Pitt, 5th-Zach Fuentes-Drexel,
DNP- Zack Elvin-Navy, Tyrone Klump-NC

there was a AA bracket around 2010 that had retherford, nolf, Nick Roberts, link, and Ryan Diehl won it. AAA bracket this year packs a good punch.
 
Any chance the Freshman Frontino can make some noise here? 2-TF’s, a major, and a pin to get to Hershey!
He has an uphill climb to reach the podium. First 2 opponents (Altieri and Bower) both have better records against better schedules, and both have fared better against common opponents.

If he beats both of them, he'd make the podium -- but that's the end of his run. Hillegas or Farber would be next.

I wouldn't put any stock in his SC Regionals performance. The best guy he faced finished 6th at regionals last year. Can't hold that weak field against him, just that it's not evidence of how he'd do in Hershey.
 
there was a AA bracket around 2010 that had retherford, nolf, Nick Roberts, link, and Ryan Diehl won it. AAA bracket this year packs a good punch.
Jason and Zain were never in the same weight (maybe in PJWs?), and Diehl was still in Maryland.

I think you're looking at 2011. Jason won 103, beat Cruz in the semis. Everett (who wrestled at Army) was also at 103. Zain, Roberts, Link, and Moisey were all at 112.
 
Jason and Zain were never in the same weight (maybe in PJWs?), and Diehl was still in Maryland.

I think you're looking at 2011. Jason won 103, beat Cruz in the semis. Everett (who wrestled at Army) was also at 103. Zain, Roberts, Link, and Moisey were all at 112.
I might combined 103 & 112 in my memory. Pasone (app st) and Patrick (Rutgers) were also in there at 112. Tough bracket for AA.
 
Care to give an overview of the Bellefonte wrestlers going? I saw they had a great week at regionals so I looked up their records but got any insight how far any of them will go or expectations for some of the younger guys going forward?

Sorry I don't know the expectations. I am excited because I wrestled for Bellefonte over 35 years ago and now just started following HS wrestling since my son now wrestles in HS. I haven't lived in the area for a long time so I am really just trying to catch up on wrestling in the area.
 
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Sorry I don't know the expectations. I am excited because I wrestled for Bellefonte over 35 years ago and now just started following HS wrestling since my son now wrestles in HS. I haven't lived in the area for a long time so I am really just trying to catch up on wrestling in the area.
Only two words you need to know about wrestling in the area. Central Mountain
 
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AAA 182 seeds:
1 – Gerrit Nijenjuis, SW-1, Canon McMillan, 43-0 – state champ, #2
2 – Maximus Hale, SE-1, Downingtown West, 34-8 – S5

Others – top half:
Joey Milano, SE-2, Spring Ford, 43-1 – S4

Prediction:
1 – Nijenjuis, with bonus
2 – Hale
3 – Milano


It will be interesting to see what Donovan McMillon (Peters Twp) can do in this bracket. He is the #2 guy coming out of SW behind Gerrit Nijenjuis. He unfortunately goes against Gerrit every year.

He is getting a lot of interest with football scholarships and PSU football is after him. His Kryptonite is Nijenjuis, but would be nice to see him go far in this bracket.
 
It will be interesting to see what Donovan McMillon (Peters Twp) can do in this bracket. He is the #2 guy coming out of SW behind Gerrit Nijenjuis. He unfortunately goes against Gerrit every year.

He is getting a lot of interest with football scholarships and PSU football is after him. His Kryptonite is Nijenjuis, but would be nice to see him go far in this bracket.
I missed him, and that's a good catch.

He beat Schultheis this year, so he's a legit threat to reach the finals in a pretty open bottom half.
 
Care to give an overview of the Bellefonte wrestlers going? I saw they had a great week at regionals so I looked up their records but got any insight how far any of them will go or expectations for some of the younger guys going forward?
One notable name is at 126 (AAA, obviously)–Jude Swisher has the 3 seed as a Sophmore. He is Sam Herring’s (of kid-calling-southern-scuffle-matches-like-a-pro fame) podcast mate on Home Mat Advantage--itself a good podcast with top name guests. I’m hoping Jude can shirk Jefe’s picks and wrestle to seed (or at least make the podium). His family goes to all the PSU duals.
 
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PA Power previewed every bracket over multiple posts on Rokfin. Upson is a much better source than me.
https://rokfin.com/PAPowerWrestling

Previews are free -- you have to endorse PA Power, then when it asks for payment, click the miniscule "Not Right Now" link in the upper RH corner.

First preview was on 3/1. Some wrestler interviews in posts between bracket previews.
 
Only two words you need to know about wrestling in the area. Central Mountain
Mifflin County is where DI coaches go to find AA quality wrestlers.
Bellefonte just won the the NW regional team title and qualified 6 for States.
State College has a Cunningham wrestling at Hershey this weekend with another in the pipeline and some Sanderson kids coming behind them.

If Central Mountain is the only thing someone knows about District 6 AAA wrestling, they are grossly under informed.
 
El J,
I read your thoughts and compared them to the local sports journalist,Brad Wilson who is a very good wrestling writer. Overall both of of you had very simaler predictions. Wilson had a couple more District 11 kids winning gold. That would be understandable since it's the area he covers.
He once again noted that Tyler Kasak 106 AAA is not getting the recognition that he deserves. He speaks of having talent not normally seen as a freshman. I have to agree.
 
Mifflin County is where DI coaches go to find AA quality wrestlers.
Bellefonte just won the the NW regional team title and qualified 6 for States.
State College has a Cunningham wrestling at Hershey this weekend with another in the pipeline and some Sanderson kids coming behind them.

If Central Mountain is the only thing someone knows about District 6 AAA wrestling, they are grossly under informed.
Where was my sarcasm emoji when I needed it lol.
 
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