2023 PA States Thread

[Tom McAndrew]

Please use this thread for all discussions about the PIAA Class AA and the PIAA Class AAA Wrestling Championships. They take place this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at Hershey, PA.

Three PSU verbals will be wrestling at PA States. I'll track their results in the pinned post atop this board.

Enjoy the wrestling, and discuss it here.

 

[Tom McAndrew]

Twenty state champs litter PIAA field

When the three-day PIAA Wrestling Championships open in Hershey on Thursday morning, 20 wrestlers who have previously claimed state titles will hit the mats. Four wrestlers — Waynesburg’s Mac Church

www.dailyitem.com

 

[Tom McAndrew]

Class AAA Brackets:

http://live.pa-wrestling.com/pdfs/2023_PIAA_State_AAA_results.pdf

 

[Tom McAndrew]

Class AA Brackets:

http://live.pa-wrestling.com/pdfs/2023_PIAA_State_AA_results.pdf

 

[Tom McAndrew]

2023 PIAA AA Lightweight Preview - FloWrestling

2023 PIAA State Wrestling Championships preview.

www.flowrestling.org

 

[Tom McAndrew]

2023 PIAA AAA Heavyweight Preview - FloWrestling

2023 PIAA State Wrestling Championships preview.

www.flowrestling.org

 

[Tom McAndrew]

2023 PIAA AAA Lightweight Preview - FloWrestling

2023 PIAA State Wrestling Championships preview.

www.flowrestling.org

 

[Tom McAndrew]

2023 PIAA AA Heavyweight Preview - FloWrestling

2023 PIAA State Wrestling Championships preview.

www.flowrestling.org

 

[El_Jefe]

For those who'd rather listen than read, and/or who want highly detailed bracket breakdowns:



Note, each of these has about a 3-min delay before beginning. Easier to bypass this on a laptop than on a phone for some reason.

 

[El_Jefe]

 

[El_Jefe]

One of the AAA clips is mislabeled -- the one with Upson + Hockenberry is the upperweights.

 

[El_Jefe]

 

[El_Jefe]

 

[El_Jefe]

Shockingly close.

 

[El_Jefe]

 

[jbeldingk]

Great concept

 

[Roar More]

Shockingly close.

Good to know he can win close ones, too.

 

[Tom McAndrew]

that's a tough one. 1 point scored in the entire match. It's unfortunate they weren't on opposite sides of the bracket. Botero, Wentzel, and Harer were class of 121 in AA, and because there were 3 of them you knew that 1 of them wouldn't make it to the final.

 

[Tom McAndrew]

@El_Jefe -- how about the Milheim brothers in AA? 3 of them are in to the semis. The 2 Harer brothers making it to the AA semis is not a big surprise.

 

[J.E.B]

Nasdeo, D. Perry, Manville, Cunningham bros, and Nick Pav into the semifinals.

 

[El_Jefe]

AA semis going mostly as expected so far.

A little surprise in the bottom half of 133: returning state champ Scott Johnson lost to D4 rival Connor Heckman, 7-3.

Also in the top half of 145: Vince Bouzakis barely got by Kaden Milheim, 1-0. Bouzakis has not exactly been a ball of fire this weekend -- Bucknell coach Wirnsberger's son has a real chance in the finals.

Good weekend for the Milheim family -- the other 2 brothers both made the finals. Unfortunately the senior was the one who lost.

 

[WV lion]

I am pretty amazed at the amount of bonus points put up by wrestlers in the AAA semifinals. PA has some studs coming through the ranks.

 

[El_Jefe]

Wentzel into this afternoon's 3rd place match.

Perry into tonight's 3rd place match.

 

[El_Jefe]

Wentzel won the 3rd place match 9-5 with 4 takedowns.

Botero hammered Harer on the mat, rode him for nearly 2 periods. 5-1 final after a 3rd period reversal + near fall later in the period.

 

[El_Jefe]

Faith Christian FR Adam Waters OW, pinned returning state champ Holden Garcia in the 172 finals.




Yes, he's on Dice's spreadsheet -- we should be watching Waters. Last year 19-0 and won PJWs at 187, then Fargo 16U double AA (freestyle 3, Greco 2) at 182. This year he drops to 172 and beat Garcia 3x.

 

[Tom McAndrew]

 

[SRATH]

Faith Christian FR Adam Waters OW, pinned returning state champ Holden Garcia in the 172 finals.




Yes, he's on Dice's spreadsheet -- we should be watching Waters. Last year 19-0 and won PJWs at 187, then Fargo 16U double AA (freestyle 3, Greco 2) at 182. This year he drops to 172 and beat Garcia 3x.

Might be Bad @$$ Christian........

 

[Tom McAndrew]

I believe @ 107 and @ 114, the finals were NE-1 vs. NE-2.

NE-1 won both of the matches (Keanu Dillard (BECA) @ 107 & Nathan Desmond (BECA) @ 114)

Dillard is a freshman and Desmond is a sophomore.

 

[Tom McAndrew]

 

[El_Jefe]

Simcox dec Shaw 1-0
Rath dec Manville 4-2
Gaj dec 2x champ Church 7-1

Rath and Gaj are both sophs.

 

[Tom McAndrew]

 

[El_Jefe]

BTW, you really need to see the Gaj-Church match to believe it.

Final was 7-1, but Gaj really won 3-1 and maybe it goes to OT 1-1 ... if Church hadn't wrestled dirty. Church gave up 4 pts on eye pokes and a uniform pull.

Scoring was:
P1: P1 Gaj (1-0)
P2: E1 Church (1-1)
P3: E1 Gaj (2-1); P1 Gaj (3-1); late T2 + P2 Gaj (7-1 final)

Never imagined seeing a 4-pt feet-to-uniform-pull move.

 

[El_Jefe]

Well, yeah, also: the ref might have missed that. Looked like Taylor might have already been up when Evans threw in legs.

But: it was the 2nd legs/standing sequence in UTB (the first called stalemate). It was also Taylor's 2nd stall call of the match -- and that 2nd stall was deserved much earlier. So things evened out.

 

[Tom McAndrew]

BTW, you really need to see the Gaj-Church match to believe it.

Final was 7-1, but Gaj really won 3-1 and maybe it goes to OT 1-1 ... if Church hadn't wrestled dirty. Church gave up 4 pts on eye pokes and a uniform pull.

Scoring was:
P1: P1 Gaj (1-0)
P2: E1 Church (1-1)
P3: E1 Gaj (2-1); P1 Gaj (3-1); late T2 + P2 Gaj (7-1 final)

Never imagined seeing a 4-pt feet-to-uniform-pull move.

smh

It's almost unheard of to have 4 penalty points in a State Final.

As an aside, when I first started out reffing, I was so focused on not messing up the big things that I would miss uniform pulls and other illegal actions. Over time, as I got more comfortable with reffing, I started noticing uniform pulls, and got to the point that where I called them quite a bit as I became more experienced. I was in one tournament this season where over 6-8 hours of reffing, I probably called that 4 or 5 times. It really becomes surprisingly easy to notice and call.

 

[El_Jefe]

smh

It's almost unheard of to have 4 penalty points in a State Final.

As an aside, when I first started out reffing, I was so focused on not messing up the big things that I would miss uniform pulls and other illegal actions. Over time, as I got more comfortable with reffing, I started noticing uniform pulls, and got to the point that where I called them quite a bit as I became more experienced. I was in one tournament this season where over 6-8 hours of reffing, I probably called that 4 or 5 times. It really becomes surprisingly easy to notice and call.

Dumb question: are things like uniform pulls easier to notice when the same guy did the other crap Church did in this match? (Eye pokes, face slaps, whirlybird his way out of takedowns, etc.)

Seems to me like it's drawing extra attention to whatever other stuff he might try. Or at least the ref would be on high alert for more chippiness.

 

[Tom McAndrew]

Dumb question: are things like uniform pulls easier to notice when the same guy did the other crap Church did in this match? (Eye pokes, face slaps, whirlybird his way out of takedowns, etc.)

Seems to me like it's drawing extra attention to whatever other stuff he might try. Or at least the ref would be on high alert for more chippiness.

yes and no.

yes, in terms of once a wrestler shows a pattern of illegal behavior, a ref would certainly be hyper about looking for future occurrences

no, in terms of a lot of reffing is just reacting to what happens, and also having seen crazy stuff thousands of times, and gotten experienced at calling it. Over the years, as a ref becomes more experienced, their visual field tends to expand. Eye pokes, face slaps, and uniform pulls are all outside the norm, and as such become pretty apparent to an experienced ref.

 

[clucas11]

Don’t understand this, wouldn’t 4 penalties be a DQ? 1 pt, 1 pt, 2 pts, DQ?

 

[clucas11]

Nevermind, I see now 4 penalty points, not 4 different penalties.

 

[El_Jefe]

Here is the Gaj-Church match.

In addition to the penalties noted above, Church's front headlocks looked like borderline chokes, and pretty sure he had a fistful of headgear on at least one in the first period.

 

[WV lion]

Here is the Gaj-Church match.

In addition to the penalties noted above, Church's front headlocks looked like borderline chokes, and pretty sure he had a fistful of headgear on at least one in the first period.

I was thinking that same thing about the front headlock.