May 23, 2019 2 min read

The PIAA will ask the National Federation of State High School Association in 2020 to reduce the number of wrestling weight classes from 14 to 12 for the 2020-21 academic year

The PIAA took the action Wednesday afternoon at its board of directors meeting. The PIAA will ask for a three-year pilot program that would drop the number of weights because of the increasing number of forfeits.

Bob Lombardi, the PIAA executive director, said the organization has been looking at the forfeit problem for some time.

“We had a couple of years to look at it and probably next year will be the third, maybe the fourth, that these weight classes have seen an increasing number of forfeits in the lower weights,” Lombardi said to Dustin Hockensmith of Pennlive.com. “We think our proposal is a better distribution than 14 and cuts down the number of forfeits and makes dual meets more pleasing to fans and the coaches.”

The 12 weight classes proposed are:

110, 118, 125, 132, 138, 145, 152, 160, 170, 190, 215, and 285.

The 14 weight classes used now by the PIAA are:

106, 113, 120, 126, 132, 138, 145, 160, 170, 182, 195, 220, and 285.

The PIAA proposal is not expected to be voted upon until April 2020, which allows time to assess any changes in the sport.

The PIAA also made a proposal to reduce the number of junior high weight classes from 18 to 15 and now will allow varsity programs to enter a second wrestler in the same weight class in tournaments with nine or more teams.

We feel that we have more than enough opportunities because of our expanded 20-person bracket that anybody worth their salt will have a chance to go in,” Lombardi told Pennlive. “We have also noticed that kids are bigger, stronger and faster than they’ve ever been by better training techniques so I’m not sure if some of our very low weights help us compared to where the growth of the athletes is going.”

The lightest weight class has changed over the decades from 95 to 110 if this proposal lasts.