The 2024 PIAA Wrestling State Championships kick off on Thursday. Ahead of Thursday, I have predictions for every weight and every match in the tournament. I will update my predictions if their are any bracket changes before Thursday.

The 2024 PIAA AA Team Championships kick off on Thursday on flowrestling.org. Let’s preview the AA field.

The Bracket

Breakdown

Round of 16

Burrell vs Honesdale

West Perry vs Bishop McCort

Chestnut Ridge vs Berks Catholic

Ft LeBoeuf vs Warrior Run

Bishop McDevitt vs Montoursville

Clearfield vs Burgettstown

Notre Dame-GP vs Bald Eagle Area

Reynolds vs Faith Christian

Quarterfinals

Burrell vs Bishop McCort

Chestnut Ridge vs Warrior Run

Bishop McDevitt vs Burgettstown

Notre Dame-GP vs Faith Christian

Semi-Finals

Bishop McCort vs Warrior Run

Burgettstown vs Faith Christian

3rd Place

Notre Dame-GP vs Burrell

Finals

Bishop McCort vs Faith Christian

The 2024 PIAA AAA Team Championships kick off on Thursday on flowrestling.org. Let’s preview the AA field.

The Bracket

Breakdown

Round of 16

Council Rock South vs Franklin Regional

Boiling Springs vs Central Mountain

Selinsgrove vs Trinity

Central Dauphin vs Bethlehem Catholic

Gettysburg vs LaSalle

Easton vs West Scranton

Erie Cathedral Prep vs Pennridge

Wilson (West Lawn) vs Connellsville

Quarterfinals

Council Rock South vs Central Mountain

Trinity vs Bethlehem Catholic

Gettysburg vs Easton

Pennridge vs Connellsville

Semi-Finals

Council Rock South vs Bethlehem Catholic

Easton vs Connellsville

3rd Place

Council Rock South vs Connellsville

Finals

Bethlehem Catholic vs Easton

The 2024 PIAA AA Team Championships kick off on Thursday on flowrestling.org. Let’s preview the AA field.

Top Half of the Bracket

Ranked Teams

#2 Bishop McCort

#5 Warrior Run

#6 Burrell

#8 Chestnut Ridge

#12 Ft LeBoeuf

#14 Berks Catholic

#15 West Perry

#18 Honesdale

Preview

The top half of the bracket does not boast the same fire power that the bottom half of the bracket does but there are some teams in here who have dominated the entire season. New District 6 power Bishop McCort makes their first appearance in Hershey after capping off a 15-0 season and boast the best individual talent this half of the bracket has with a “murderers row” between 127-152 with Jax Forrest, Mason Gibson, Bo Bassett, Sam Herring, and Melvin Miller. This team will face a solid District 3 team in West Perry who is coming off a big win in the Preliminaries over Saucon Valley. 

Burrell came up with a big win in last week’s WPIAL finals over Burgettstown to make it to Hershey. Led by Columbia commit Cooper Hornack, this Burrell team is looking to make noise on this side of the bracket and it starts with the District 2 representative Honesdale. Honesdale boasts a solid lineup top to bottom that does not have the best talent, but their wrestlers are very consistent. Consistency is key in this dual tournament and if Honesdale can pull things together, they may shock some teams on the back side.

Chestnut Ridge is led by Domenic Deputy who is having one of the best seasons an individual wrestler can have in the state with multiple wins over nationally ranked wrestlers. Chestnut Ridge is making the seemingly annual trek to Hershey after another great season and it starts out with Berks Catholic. Berks Catholic came out of a very tough District 3 this year losing to Bishop McDevitt in the District finals. This team has returned a lot from last year where they placed 4th in the state.

Warrior Run has put their stamp on District 4 after another dominant season going undefeated including two wins over Montoursville in tight fashion. They get a rematch with Ft LeBoeuf who knocked them out of this bracket last year. Speaking of Ft LeBoeuf, they are peaking at the right time with some big wins down the stretch including a win over Chestnut Ridge. They had one of the toughest schedules in the field with five matches against teams that made the AA or AAA tournament going 1-5 including two losses to Reynolds in tight duals.

Ft LeBoeuf vs Warrior Run is the best matchup to start off Thursday as this will be a back and forth dual the entire way. Winner of that matchup has a good shot at making the Semi-Finals to take on either Bishop McCort or Burrell. Maybe Ft LeBoeuf can go on the same run that they did last year, upsetting Warrior Run, Chestnut Ridge, and Burgettstown on their way to a runner-up finish.

Best Potential Matchups

Quarterfinals – #6 Burrell vs #2 Bishop McCort

Quarterfinals – #8 Chestnut Ridge vs #5 Warrior Run

Semi-Finals – #2 Bishop McCort vs #5 Warrior Run

Best Potential Individual Matchups

Round of 16

121 LBS – Lincoln Sledzianowski (Bishop McCort) vs Jackson Rush (West Perry)

133 LBS – Jake Bennett (Ft LeBoeuf) vs Max Wirnsberger (Warrior Run)

139 LBS – Blake Glass (Ft LeBoeuf) vs Tyler Ulrich (Warrior Run)

Quarterfinals

133 LBS – Mason Weyant (Chestnut Ridge) vs Max Wirsberger (Warrior Run)

139 LBS – Cooper Hornack (Burrell) vs Bo Bassett (Bishop McCort)

152 LBS – Cameron Imler (Chestnut Ridge) vs Cameron Milheim (Warrior Run)

160 LBS – Nico Zanella (Burrell) vs Devon Magro (Bishop McCort)

Semi-Finals

133 LBS – Mason Gibson (Bishop McCort) vs Max Wirnsberger (Warrior Run)

145 LBS – Sam Herring (Bishop McCort) vs Reagan Milheim (Warrior Run)

152 LBS – Melvin Miller (Bishop McCort) vs Cameron Milheim (Warrior Run) 

Bottom Half of the Bracket

Ranked Teams

#1 Faith Christian

#3 Notre Dame-GP

#4 Bishop McDevitt

#7 Reynolds

#9 Burgettstown

#10 Bald Eagle Area

#11 Montoursville

#13 Clearfield

Preview

This half of the bracket is loaded with all four first round matchups being very competitive. Most of these duals could be razor close starting off with Bishop McDevitt vs Montoursville. Bishop McDevitt bounced back from a down year last season and have dominated most of their competition this season with their young roster. Montoursville has shown a lot of improvement last year after failing to make it to Hershey and has shown that they are a real threat with two tight losses to Warrior Run that could have gone the other way.

Clearfield has settled into AA and took home a District 9 title last weekend. Clearfield always has a solid lineup and they come out and wrestle consistently all season. They are going to face WPIAL runner-up Burgettstown who fell to Burrell last weekend in an entertaining dual. Both teams have solid lineups and it will be competitive in a bunch of matches.

Notre Dame-GP is coming back to Hershey after last year’s 3rd place finish. Although they lost some talent from last year’s team, this team has not skipped a beat and was within one point of taking out AAA power house Bethlehem Catholic recently. They take on a talented Bald Eagle Area who is coming off an impressive season and an impressive win over Quaker Valley in the Preliminaries. This team has been dominant in most of their matches but have fallen to top teams in this field.

Reynolds is back in the conversation as they have had a really good year going 18-0 including 6 wins over teams in the AA or AAA field. After a down year last year, the former king’s of the state are back but will have to take on the current king of the state Faith Christian. Faith Christian’s season started out rough due to key wrestlers being out of the lineup but now they are in full force. Faith Christian has a very young lineup with a ton of Division 1 talent that has helped propel them back to Hershey.

Everyone is going to be looking ahead to the Faith Christian vs Notre Dame-GP Quarterfinal dual that could ultimately be the match that decides the state champion but this half of the bracket is full of very talented teams so maybe we could be in store for some upsets if the stars align. 

Best Potential Matchups

Quarterfinals – #4 Bishop McDevitt vs #9 Burgettstown

Quarterfinals – #3 Notre Dame-GP vs #1 Faith Christian

Semi-Finals – #4 Bishop McDevitt vs #1 Faith Christian/#3 Notre Dame-GP

Best Potential Individual Matchups

Round of 16

114 LBS – Ayden Smith (Notre Dame-GP) vs Caden Judice (Bald Eagle Area)

121 LBS – Louie Gill (Reynolds) vs Gauge Botero (Faith Christian)

127 LBS – Bryndin Chamberlain (Clearfield) vs Dylan Slovick (Burgettstown)

133 LBS – Camben Baum (Bishop McDevitt) vs Blaize Vogel (Montoursville)

215 LBS – Lucas Lawler (Bishop McDevitt) vs Cole Yonkin (Montoursville)

285 LBS – Carter Chamberlain (Clearfield) vs Joey Baronick (Burgettstown)

Quarterfinals

114 LBS – Zane Crouse (Bishop McDevitt) vs Noah Leininger (Burgettstown)

133 LBS – Camden Baum (Bishop McDevitt) vs Parker Sentipal (Burgettstown)

145 LBS – Ryan Lawler (Bishop McDevitt) vs Logan Noyes (Burgettstown)

Semi-Finals

139 LBS – Gaven Suica (Burgettstown) vs Mason Wagner (Faith Christian)

285 LBS – Joey Baronick (Burgettstown) vs Mark Effendian (Faith Christian)

The 2024 PIAA AAA Team Championships kick off on Thursday on flowrestling.org. Let’s preview the AA field.

Top Half of the Bracket

Ranked Teams

#1 Bethlehem Catholic

#4 Council Rock South

#6 Central Mountain

#10 Trinity

#11 Boiling Springs

#12 Selinsgrove

#13 Franklin Regional

#17 Central Dauphin

Preview

Bethlehem Catholic is the reigning state champion from last year and comes in after avenging a regular season loss to Easton in the District 11 finals 32-23. They come in as the clear favorites in the top half of this bracket and will get a first round matchup with last year’s third place finisher Central Dauphin. Central Dauphin has had a solid season with losses to two teams in this field in competitive matchups. Look for them to make a run on the back side of the bracket.

Council Rock South capped off another great year by winning a District 1 title over Pennridge. This roster is deep at almost every weight and has some of the talent to make a deep run into this tournament. They will face Franklin Regional which is coming off a win over District 8 champ Obama Academy in the preliminaries. A perennially great team, Franklin Regional is back in the team dual conversation after going 20-1 up to this point. 

Boiling Springs has made the adjustment to AAA after going up from AA last year and after struggling a bit last year, they make the trip back to Hershey. This team is full of great talent in almost every weight which helped them to a 17-3 record. They will take on District 6 power Central Mountain who is led by both veteran and young talented wrestlers. Near the top of the rankings all year, Central Mountain dominated their dual schedule going 9-0 and had great success at major individual tournaments throughout the year placing in the top 5 in most of them.

Selinsgrove comes in as a surprise team out of District 4 despite being consistently good over the years. Selinsgrove took home a District 4/9 title this season with a great crop of middle to heavy weights leading the team to victory. They will take on WPIAL runner-ups Trinity. Trinity had a great season and was the #1 seed headed into the WPIAL tournament before losing to Connellsville in the finals. This is a very good team that will look to make some noise in this bracket.

Best Potential Matchups

Quarterfinals – #4 Council Rock South vs #6 Central Mountain

Semi-Finals – #4 Council Rock South vs #1 Bethlehem Catholic

Best Potential Individual Matchups

Round of 16

121 LBS – Drew Scherer (Boiling Springs) vs Aiden Kunes (Central Mountain)

127 LBS – Pat Woloshyn (Council Rock South) vs Tyler Kapusta (Franklin Regional)

139 LBS – Ian Longenberger (Boiling Springs) vs Dalton Perry (Central Mountain)

139 LBS – CJ Ferree (Central Dauphin) vs Marco Frinzi (Bethlehem Catholic)

145 LBS – Ben Brillhart (Council Rock South) vs Luke Ankney (Franklin Regional)

145 LBS – Ean Wilson (Boiling Springs) vs Luke Simcox (Central Mountain)

145 LBS – Liam Flanagan (Central Dauphin) vs Shane McFillin (Bethlehem Catholic)

189 LBS – Tucker Teats (Selinsgrove) vs Robert Allison (Trinity)

Quarterfinals

121 LBS – Dominick Canali (Trinity) vs Keanu Dillard (Bethlehem Catholic)

139 LBS – Blake Reihner (Trinity) vs Marco Frinzi (Bethlehem Catholic)

145 LBS – Ben Brillhart (Council Rock South) vs Luke Simcox (Central Mountain)

145 LBS – Thomas Allison (Trinity) vs Shane McFillin (Bethlehem Catholic)

Semi-Finals

114 LBS – Connor Lenahan (Council Rock South) vs Reef Dillard (Bethlehem Catholic)

121 LBS – Luke Reitter (Council Rock South) vs Keanu Dillard (Bethlehem Catholic)

145 LBS – Ben Brillhart (Council Rock South) vs Shane McFillin (Bethlehem Catholic)

160 LBS – Gavin Cole (Council Rock South) vs Charlie Scanlan (Bethlehem Catholic)

Bottom Half of the Bracket

Ranked Teams

#2 Easton

#3 Connellsville

#7 Gettysburg

#8 Erie Cathedral Prep

#9 LaSalle

#14 West Scranton

#15 Pennridge

#16 Wilson (West Lawn)

Preview

Easton had a historic year defeating both Bethlehem Catholic and Nazareth and climbing all the way up to #1 in the rankings before falling to Bethlehem Catholic in the District 11 finals last weekend. This team is still very dangerous and will take on West Scranton. West Scranton has been emerging for years in District 2 but finally had the roster to put everything together to win a District title. West Scranton has a lot of talent in the lower to middle weights and can get out to a quick lead in a dual because of it.

Gettysburg is a lot like Boiling Springs that needed some time to build up their roster to be able to compete up to AAA after moving up last season and they climbed all the way to the top of a tough District 3 field. With relatively zero holes in this lineup, Gettysburg could be dangerous. They take on LaSalle in the first round who is getting better and better every year. LaSalle has a lot of great talent in their lineup and could be able to compete with teams in this field.

Erie Cathedral Prep is very familiar with the Team State Championships in Hershey as they had another great year winning a District 10 title. They got another perennial team in Hershey, Pennridge. Pennridge boasts a very competitive roster and can compete with the teams in this field. Pennridge finished as the runner-ups in a loaded District 1 field.

Connellsville has been near the top of the rankings all season and proved that they should be after taking home a WPIAL title as the 3 seed. This is a very talented roster that boasts some great individual talent but will take on a newcomer and difficult team Wilson (West Lawn). Wilson (West Lawn) burst onto the scene with a remarkable 20-2 year placing 3rd in the District 3 tournament. Led by McKaden Speece and James Garcia, this team will be a problem in Hershey.

Best Potential Matchups

Quarterfinals – #7 Gettysburg vs #2 Easton

Semi-Fnals – #2 Easton vs #3 Connellsville

Best Potential Individual Matchups

Round of 16

114 LBS – Blake Haines (Gettysburg) vs Jackson Hersh (LaSalle)

114 LBS – Nicholas Salamone (Easton) vs Connor Lagier (West Scranton)

133 LBS – James Garcia (Wilson (West Lawn)) vs Kai Vielma (Connellsville)

139 LBS – Benjamin Fanelli (Easton) vs Jason Williams (West Scranton)

160 LBS – Matteo Garcia (Wilson (West Lawn)) vs Lonzy Vielma (Connellsville)

172 LBS – Jaxon Townsend (Gettysburg) vs Cormac Morrissey (LaSalle)

Quarterfinals

107 LBS – William Yordy (Gettysburg) vs Noah Fenner (Easton

114 LBS – Blake Haines (Gettysburg) vs Nicholas Salamone (Easton)

133 LBS – Cole Coffin (Pennridge) vs Kai Vielma (Connellsville)

160 LBS – Ryan Gallagher (Pennridge) vs Lonzy Vielma (Connellsville)

Semi-Finals

107 LBS – Noah Fenner (Easton) vs Nolan Rice (Connellsville)

133 LBS – Christopher Kelly (Easton) vs Kai Vielma (Connellsville)

139 LBS – Benjamin Fanelli (Easton) vs Julian Ruggieri (Connellsville)

160 LBS – James Geiger (Easton) vs Lonzy Vielma (Connellsville)