Class 3A could gain qualifiers under wrestling plan
WPIAL (District 7) officials went into this week’s PIAA meetings hoping to keep their qualifiers to the state wrestling tournament from dropping from four to three in Class 3A.
What they came away with is a possible five qualifiers, if the plan is approved in mid-May by the PIAA Board of Control.
What failed to be approved at the PIAA Steering Committee was the downsizing of Class 3A from five regions to four. That died in a 7-7 draw in the voting by district officials.
The motion that could have the WPIAL qualifying five to the state tournament was presented by Frank Vulcano, athletic director at Canon-McMillan and head of the WPIAL Steering Committee.
“They didn’t go for the regional change,” Vulcano said. “None of the regions changed. All those different scenarios, nothing panned out. (For the qualifiers), I proposed an allocation system based on underclassmen medalist and it passed. So next year, District 7 will have five qualifiers.”
If the idea is passed at next month’s PIAA Board of Control meeting.
The system Vulcano presented is determined this way in Class 3A:
1. Each region automatically gets three qualifiers.
2 The number of underclassmen medalists (14) divided by the total wrestlers in the region (39) gives you the percentage of underclassmen medalists by region.
3. Take the percentage of returning medalists (28 percent for the Southwest Region this year) and multiply it by the maximum number of entries per weight for the tournament (20).
The Southwest Region has the top score of 5.6, which in this case is rounded down to five per weight class, the maximum number a region can have in the 20-man bracket.
The same process is used for Class 2A. A minimum of four qualifiers from the four regions per weight class gets into the 20-man bracket. The remaining four spots in each of the 20-man bracket are up for grabs.
Putting the same numbers used in Class 3A, the Southwest Region gets five qualifiers, down from six.
“The record for sixth-place finishers from the (Southwest) Region was 2-26 (at the state tournament),” said Vulcano. “This is only a one-year thing. Next year (the extra spots), are based on that year’s medalists. So everything can change.”
Another surprise move came with the PIAA Team Tournament. Class 3A and Class 2A will be broken into four divisions for the postseason. More on this to come.
Other matters that were discussed:
- The new 13 National Federation of High Schools weight classes were approved for next season. The lower six weight classes added a pound. The weights will be 107, 114, 121, 127, 133, 139, 145, 152, 160, 172, 189, 215 and 285.
- Discussion of increasing competitions did not get voted on and will remain at 22.
- The committee passed a seven dual-meet minimum for teams to enter the PIAA Team Tournament, which begins with the WPIAL Team Tournament.
- Methods of counting competitions were clarified.
There was an update on girls wrestling. There are 35 girls teams across the state. The PIAA will sponsor the growing sport when it reaches 100.