Picking the team tourney winners
A couple trivia questions.
What Washington-Greene County team last won the WPIAL Team Tournament in Class AAA?
In Class AA?
Maybe the first one is pretty easy. The answer is Canon-McMillan, which won the last one and its fourth straight in 2013.
The Chris Mary-led Big Macs were putting the finishing touches on the most successful run of any Class AAA team in WPIAL history. No other Class AAA team won four in a row and the WPIAL has been holding this tournament since 1974.
The closest any team came to matching that feat was North Allegheny, which won five in seven seasons from 1984-90. Connellsville won four of six (2000-2005), McGuffey won three of four from 1996-99 as did Trinity from 1976-79.
Now, what about Class AA?
If you guessed Fort Cherry in 2002, go to the head of the class. The Jason Carpetta-led Rangers won the school’s second title in three seasons and they raised the trophy in celebration just hours before Jeff Bricker and the Trinity Hillers did it after the Triple-A final.
The reason why it’s been 15 years since a Class AA team from this area won a team tournament title is Burrell. The Bucs captured the Double-A team title a record 10 seasons in a row, some by fielding the best talent and some by simply gutting out a win with less-than-the-best talent.
Burrell’s streak should have ended a few times, but incredibly, the Bucs pulled out some wins against long odds. The most interesting might have come in the 2011-12 season, when Burrell won the final bout and knocked off top-seeded Jefferson-Morgan, 34-31.
South Fayette had a chance three years ago but lost the final two bouts, and the dual meet, 34-28.
Those opportunities lost make Burrell seem that much more invincible and that much more likely to extend the winning streak. This year will be no different. The records of the Bucs’ individuals are not gaudy, but that’s the effect of wrestling a grueling schedule that includes the King of the Mountain and Powerade Christmas Wrestling tournaments, top-seeded Kiski and Class AA powers Brookville, Chestnut Ridge and Reynolds.
The Bucs are prepared for this.
Burrell enters this tournament as the top seed and wrestles Fort Cherry when the first round gets underway Wednesday. An improving South Fayette teams is second seed, Freedom third and McGuffey fourth. It will be challenging, but the Bucs will make it 11 in a row with a victory over South Fayette.
Look for McGuffey to finish third.
In Class AAA, there is the Eric Hong Factor.
Hong is the 160-pound senior who jumped into the North Allegheny lineup in January and has not been beaten in 11 bouts. His presence has made the Tigers a much better team after transferring from The Kiski School. And he could have made North Allegheny, the No. 3 seed, the dark horse to upset top-seeded Kiski.
Except …
NA is dealing with injuries, two of them to starters in Luke Landfeld (132) and Sean Hoover (170).
So, the choice here is Kiski over North Allegheny in the finals with the caveat of Landfeld and Hoover competing.
Canon-McMillan has injury problems too. Michael Binney (106) is out and the 195-pound weight was a problem area in the section tournament. Look for C-M to finish third.
Assistant sports editor Joe Tuscano can be reached at jtuscano@observer-reporter.com