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)