HYDE — For the District 9 AA wrestlers, the road to Hershey for the PIAA State Championships begins Friday afternoon in the Bison Gym at the Clearfield Area Junior/Senior High School.
Twelve Golden Tide wrestlers will take to the mats looking for their first trip to the Giant Center.
They will be led by returning champ Zach Holland (27-0) at 138 pounds. Holland was injured most of last year and was just 2-0 in the regular season before winning the D9 title at 145 pounds.
Though the senior Holland is the lone Tide grappler to claim a top seed, four underclassmen teammates received top-5 seeds.
Junior Jake McCracken (22-6) is the number two seed at 170, sophomore Brennen Moore (15-10) is the number four at 220, and garnering fifth seeds are sophomore Jacob Carfley (23-8) at 106 and freshman Nik Fegert (13-11) at 126.
Junior Duane Brady (19-9) is sixth seeded. Other Tide wrestlers looking to make some noise at the tourney are Caleb Stiles (8-12) at 120, Mitchell Sutika (8-13) at 132, Zach Shaffer (9-15) at 145, Adam Straw (12-16) at 152, Dylan Harmic (1-9) at 160, and Nick Holbert (6-9) at 195. The Tide have no entry at 113 and 285.
The top-4 in each weight class will join District 10 at the North West Region Tournament at Sharon High School next weekend.
Besides Holland there are seven returning champions from a year ago. They are Owen Reinsel (30-4) from Brookville at 113, Braedon Johnson (20-4) from Port Allegany at 126, Anthony Glasl (28-1) from Brockway at 132, Ethan Wiant (30-0) from Redbank Valley at 145, Ethan Finch (24-7) from Sheffield at 182, Eric Johnson (27-1) from Brockway at 195, and Colby Whitehill (30-0) from Brookville at 285.
Whitehill went on to be a state champions, while Glasl placed fifth.
All of the returning champs are tops seeds, along with Cayden Walter (25-5) from Brookville at 106, Brayden Kunselman (27-5) from Brookville at 120, Jacob Wickett (26-6) from Ridgway at 152, Noah Bash (21-7) from Brockway at 152, Teddy Race (26-2) from Kane at 170, and Nathan Taylor (30-5) from Brookville at 220.
Perennial district power Brookville will look to return to the top of the team race after being knocked off by Brockway last year.
Action begins at 4:30 pm Friday with the preliminary round, quarterfinals, and finally concludes with two rounds of consolations. The second day of action starts at 10:30 am with the semifinals and two more rounds of wrestlebacks.
The afternoon session will start at 3:00 PM with the third, fifth, and seventh place matches. the day will end with the District 9 Hall of Fame inductions and Parade of Champions at 4:20 and the championship finals at 4:45.
The complete bracket, courtesy PA-Wrestling.com can be found by clicking here