Oct 31, 2016 3 min read

The WPIAL has made major changes to its postseason wrestling scheduling and format.

The section tournaments in Class AA and the WPIAL Class AA Championships will be held on consecutive days, Feb. 17-18, at Canon-McMillan High School.

“The main reason for this is that there was a lot of talk about dropping the section tournaments,” said Canon-McMillan athletic director Frank Vulcano, head of the WPIAL wrestling steering committee.

“There were mixed feelings between the coaches. Some coaches wanted to continue that so the marginal kids had something to shoot for and help build up their program. We understood that. There were also coaches who just wanted to make it one big tournament. We did that in the past but participation was very low. So we thought of this idea, one day at one site.”

Vulcano said one of the problems with the section tournament’s previous format was a lack of participation.

“Some weights had just a couple kids in them,” said Vulcano. “We decided to keep the section tournaments alive.”

The Class AA section tournament will begin at 4 p.m., Friday, Feb. 17 over nine mats on the floor of the adjoining gymnasiums at Canon-McMillan.

“It will be just like a section tournament, except it will be set up at one site,” said Vulcano. “We’ll have three tournaments going on at once. We project the finals to start at 8 p.m.”

The top four wrestlers in each weight class will advance to the next day’s Class AA championships. That event will take place over six mats and will be a day-long tournament.

“We’ll start at 11 a.m. with the opening round,” Vulcano said. “We have finals projected at 7 p.m.”

Vulcano said the combined qualifiers from the three section tournaments has been lowered from 15 to 12.

He also said the combined tournaments allow for a shorter postseason. The PIAA Class AA Southwest Region Tournament will take place a week earlier this season. That allowed Indiana University of Pennsylvania to host the event. IUP wanted to host last season but the date fell on the first weekend of the postseason tournament and the school could not commit.

“The last weekend in February was normally our WPIAL championships,” Vulcano said. “So the weekend before is still the regular season. That allowed (the PIAA) to secure IUP for the regional. The kids will have one week off before the state tournament.”

Vulcano said the changes are set for two years but the WPIAL is reserving the right to make changes after one.

“Most people seem to like it,” Vulcano said. “The majority of the kids will be finished a week earlier if they aren’t going to states. Those who are have a week to recover. That’s something District 3 has done for some time. We’re not the first district to do that.”

Vulcano said Canon-McMillan also will be the site for the WPIAL Class AAA championships March 3-4. That event was held at Penn Hills High School the past two seasons.