Section, WPIAL, Regional, States–that’s the four-week grind that is the PIAA Wrestling Championship Series. The road opened Saturday with Sectional tournaments across the WPIAL. Washington & Greene County teams competed in 2A Southern Sectional at Burgettstown, 3A Southern Sectional at South Fayette and 3A Eastern Sectional at Norwin. The top six place-winners in each weight paid the toll to stay on the road, advancing to next weekend’s WPIAL Championships. The 2A wrestlers will head to Chartiers Valley. 3A wrestlers head to Canon-McMillan for the next step on the journey. The WPIAL Girls Championships were held Saturday at North Allegheny with the top five place-winners automatically qualifying for the West Regional. The sixth place finisher would qualify in any weight that the Pittsburgh City League champion does not participate. Click on each tournament for medal-bout results.
2A Southern Sectional–McGuffey advanced 11 wrestlers, followed by Burgettstown (8), Avella (7), Chartiers-Houston & Jeff-Morgan (6 each), Beth-Center (5), Bentworth, Wash High & West Greene (4 each), Fort Cherry 3. The other 19 qualifiers include South Side (7), Frazier & Hopewell (5 each) and Brownsville two.
3A Southern Sectional–Trinity leads the way with 9 WPIAL qualifiers. Canon-McMillan advances 6, Peters Township 5 and Waynesburg 4. Bethel Park and Moon Area each have 9 qualifiers among the 3A neighbors. West Allegheny (7), Upper St. Clair (6), Mt. Lebanon (5), Baldwin, Chartiers Valley and South Fayette have four qualifiers each. Montour (3) and Blackhawk (1) round out the field.
3A Eastern Sectional–Ringgold has five WPIAL qualifiers. Thomas Jefferson (7), Belle Vernon (5) and West Mifflin (2) combine for 14 entries. Connellsville and Franklin Regional each have a dozen qualifiers followed by Norwin with 10 more. Penn-Trafford will send seven into next week. Latrobe and Plum have five qualifiers each with Hempfield (4), Gateway (3) and Albert Gallatin (1) rounding out the bracket.
Girls WPIAL Championships–Canon-McMillan led the WPIAL Girls championships with one champion, two runners-up and at least 9 West Regional qualifiers. Marlee Solomon won a major decision to claim the 112 pound championship. Avella’s Abigail Dolanch and Fort Cherry’s Ella Trahan also won WPIAL titles. Dolanch will be joined by Avella teammate Virginia Smith. Trinity has at least two, possibly three, wrestlers advancing to the regional tournament March 1st. Peters Township and Ringgold each have one wrestling moving on.