PIAA adjusts Class 3A wrestling postseason
Frank Vulcano Jr. doesn’t have many equals when it comes to running a wrestling tournament.
The Canon-McMillan athletic director and chairman of the WPIAL wrestling steering committee will add the PIAA Class 3A Southwest Region Individual Championships to his schedule this March as the PIAA approved changes to the postseason format for the 2025 and 2026 seasons.
The WPIAL championships in Class 3A has also served as the Southwest Regional tournament with qualifiers fluctuating from three to four qualifiers per weight over the years, but those advancing out of the WPIAL will move to the Southwest Regional tournament.
The Southwest Regional in Class 3A will feature Districts 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10. Districts 9 and 10 will be combined. There are only four teams in District 10 in Class 3A. Erie Cathedral Prep, who has been one of the stronger teams in Class 3A out of District 10, has moved down to Class 2A.
Canon-McMillan will remain the host of the WPIAL tournament, but it will be a week earlier. The section tournaments for Class 3A will begin, along with Class 2A, on Feb. 15. The WPIAL tournament will be Feb. 21-22 and the Southwest Regional is set for Feb. 28-March 1.
Seven wrestlers from the WPIAL per weight will qualify for the Southwest Regional, where the top five in each weight will advance to the state tournament at the Giant Center in Hershey.
Vulcano said he always looks to do what is in the best interest of the sport.
“The number of qualifiers per region is based on the number of teams, and not the quality of the competition, which is what a lot of people believe,” Vulcano said. “There will be four regional champions at the state tournament, and the earliest they could meet at states would be in the semifinals, as opposed to the quarterfinals.”
The Class 2A format will mostly remain the same, but the WPIAL will have eight per weight class advance to the Southwest Regional, and seven will qualify for the state tournament. The Class 2A Southwest Regional includes Districts 5, 6 and 7.
Girls wrestling made its PIAA debut last year and the format will follow the same pattern with the West Region taking wrestlers from Districts 7, 8 and 10. Like last season, there is only one classification for girls wrestling.
New rules
The National Federation of High School announced the addition of the three-point takedown and four-point fall, and made a change to the out-of-bounds rule.
Beginning this season, wrestlers will be considered in bounds if either wrestler has one point of contact inside the boundary line.
The three-point takedown follows the NCAA putting the rule in place. The NFHS also followed the collegiate point system for near-fall points with two for a two-count, three for a three-count and four for a four-count.