CURWENSVILLE — Curwensville Area High School sophomore Blake Passarelli is one of an unusually high number of returnees, 11, in the 113-pound bracket of the 2017 PIAA Class AA Wrestling Championships that get under way Thursday morning in the Giant Center at Hershey.
Topping the list are three of last year’s 106-pound state placewinners, including undefeated Southern Columbia junior Jaret Lane, who lost in the finals last year after finishing fifth in 2015. The two-time District 4 and Northeast Region champ’s 44 wins this season boost his career record to 126-7.
Also up a weight after meeting in the fifth-place bout last March are District 9 champ and Northwest Region runner-up Keelan Kunselman of Brookville and two-time District 3 titlist and Northeast gold medalist Chase Shields of Bishop McDevitt. Kunselman won that match 7-0.
Sophomore Richie Markulics (40-3) of Notre Dame-Green Pond is back after placing eighth at 113 last year. He shook off a 5-3 quarterfinal loss to Shields to placed third in the SE Region.
Shields, a 35-4 sophomore with a 71-14 career record, would be Passarelli’s opponent in the first round if he defeats Southwest Region sixth placer Bryan Gaul of Burrell in the 9 a.m. preliminaries. Gaul (32-14) qualified for the region tourney by placing third in District 7 (WPIAL).
Passarelli (29-6, 58-16 career) finished third in District 9 for the second year in a row and wound up fourth in the NW Region after losing to Kunselman in the championship semis.
If the Golden Tide lightweight loses to Gaul, he will wrestle again later in the session against the loser of the prelim between Tri-Valley freshman Cal Schoffstall (30-15) and Everett sophomore Garrett Cornell (32-4), who was 2-2 at 106 in the 2016 state tourney.
Passarelli won one of three matches in his first trip to Chocolatetown.
Another trio with state experience in Passarelli’s half of the bracket are NE runner-up Wyatt Lutz (34-7) of Montoursville, SW runner-up Derrick Christie (18-8) of Westmont Hilltop and NE third placer Colby Bronzburg (29-10) of Bloomsburg. Lutz split four matches, Christie was 1-2 and Bronzburg was 0-2.
Joining Lane, Markulics and Kunselman (29-11) in the upper half will be SW fifth placer Manny Dovshek (30-5) of Bentworth and SE sixth placer Landon West (28-16) of Bermudian Springs. Both were 0-2 in their state debuts.
This week’s Off The Mat rankings have Lane ranked No. 1 in the state, Shields second, Kunselman third, NE champ Kyle Bush of Ridgway fourth, Lutz fifth, NE-4 A.J. Burkhart of Athens sixth, Markulics seventh, SW champ Dylan Williams of Chestnut Ridge eighth, SE-5 Marckis Branford ninth, Christie 11th, SW-3 Zachary Ward of Freedom 12th, Dovshek 14th, Cornell 15th and SE-2 Tyger Evans of Susquehanna Township 16th.
District 9 boasts 19 qualifiers in addition to Passarelli and Kunselman, including champions Kyle Bush (113) of Ridgway and Gavin Park (120) and Caleb Hetrick (152) of Brookville and silver medalists Anthony Glasl (106) of Brockway, Lukas McClain (132) of Ridgway, Jacob Kallenborn (160) of Port Allegany and Tyler Cook (220) of Brookville.
Two sessions are scheduled for Friday, 9 a.m. for the quarterfinals and second round consolations followed by the third round consolations and 7:30 p.m. for the semifinals and consolation quarterfinals followed by the consolation semifinals.
On Saturday, the championships will begin at 2 p.m. and will be televised by the Pennsylvania Cable Network (PCN, Channel 14). The matches for third, fifth and seventh places will run concurrently on three mats.
Brackets can be found here, courtesy PA-Wrestling.com and the PIAA.