CURWENSVILLE – Curwensville junior 119-pounder Derek Brothers begins his quest for a third consecutive championship while Golden Tide senior 145-pounder Jeff Thomas will be making his first appearance when the Northwest Region Class AA Wrestling Tournament gets under way in Sharon High School Friday evening.
Only the quarterfinals will be wrestled during the 6 o\’clock session.
All of the District 9 and District 10 placewinners will return Saturday for the championship semifinals and consolation quarterfinals at 9:15 a.m. The consy semifinals will follow. The all-important third-place bouts will begin at 4:15, with the championship matches set for 6.
The champs, runners-up and third-placers will advance to the PIAA Class AA Tournament next week in Hershey\’s Giant Center.
A rematch of last year\’s 112-pound title bout is possible with District 9 champ Brothers (30-2) in the lower bracket and District 10 champ Adam Matthews (33-5) of Reynolds in the top bracket. Brothers won that one 4-2 with a first-period takedown and second-period reversal.
First, Brothers will have to advance past D-10 fourth-placer Ian Chiesa (17-5) of Northwestern in the quarters and either D-10 runner-up Christian Drain (24-6) of North East or D-9 third-placer Ian Grecco (29-6) of Brockway in the semis.
Drain, who placed third at 119 last year, won the D-10 Section 1 title by topping Chiesa 9-5 in overtime. Chiesa was considered the section favorite by some even though Drain was the returning champ.
Matthews, a 3-2 winner over Drain 3-2 in the D-10 finals, opens against D-10 fifth-placer Nate Dias (31-10) of Commodore Perry in a rematch of the D-10 Section 2 title bout which he won 10-1.
D-9 runner-up Tyler McCauley (24-6) of Redbank Valley and D-10 third-placer Ian Abplanalp (23-12) of Grove City will square off in the other quarterfinal. McCauley lost 8-3 to Mason Beckman of Reynolds in the 103 region finals last year.
Brothers defeated McCauley 3-0 for his second D-9 crown last week.
Thomas (28-3) faces an equally tough task in a weight stacked with five very tough D-10 representatives.
His first match will be with D-10 fourth-placer Brandon Collins (29-8) of Commodore Perry. Collins went into the Section 2 tourney as the top seed and wound up fourth. He bounced back last week to upset Section 1 champ Jeremy King of Fort LeBoeuf 3-1 in the third overtime period in the quarterfinals before losing 4-2 in three overtimes to Luke Taylor of Reynolds in the semis.
Win or lose, Thomas\’ next opponent will be D-10 runner-up Taylor (24-8) or D-9 third-placer Kasey Haines (23-8) of Redbank Valley.
Taylor has lost by the same score, 5-4, to Fabio Boccuzzi (36-7) of Hickory the last two weeks. An escape with two seconds remaining decided the Section 2 title bout and a reversal in the second overtime settled the D-10 final.
Boccuzzi is paired against D-10 fifth-placer Cody Northcott of Cochranton (29-8) in the first round. Boccuzzi won a controversial 2-1 overtime decision in the district semifinals to avenge an 8-2 loss in the Fred Bell Tournament at Grove City. Both seniors own more than 100 career wins.
The other bout in the top bracket pits King (31-6), who placed third in D-10, against D-9 runner-up Nathan Hartless (31-4) of Brockway.
Thomas beat Hartless 6-1 for the D-9 championship. He had lost to 5-3 to the Rover in December.
Northcott owns two wins over Thomas, 7-2 in the Redbank Valley Christmas Tournament finals last season and 4-2 in the same tourney when they were sophomores.
Brothers is one of eight returning region champions, including three-timer Cody Kelly of Reynolds at 130 and defending state champions Jordan Moss of Sharon at 135 and Dirk Cowburn of Smethport at 152.
The others are Mason Beckman of Reynolds at 112, Coty Burnett of Greenville at 125, Jon-Marc Burdick of Smethport at 140 and Dylan Major of Port Allegany at 189.
Beckman, Burnett and Kelly have moved up one weight, while Major is down from 215.