CURWENSVILLE — With all top three region finishers receiving byes for the preliminary round, the Curwensville Area High School duo of freshman Blake Passarelli and senior Shae Bloom will have to wait until late Thursday morning for their first action at the 2016 PIAA Class AA Wrestling Championships in the Hershey Giant Center.
Bloom (32-1) won the 152-pound title while Passarelli (29-8) placed third at 106 in the Northwest Region Tournament last weekend.
A four-time District 9 champion, Bloom will be making his fourth appearance at states.
He represented DuBois Area High School in Class AAA as a freshman and sophomore, when he also was a region titlist, before earning his first PIAA medal with a fifth-place finish for the Golden Tide last March.
Bloom will get the winner of the preliminary bout between Southeast Region fourth-placer Nathan Harka (34-9) of Saucon Valley and Southwest Region sixth-placer Ben Previte (44-13) of South Fayette.
Passarelli debuts against Northeast Region runner-up Joe Klock (27-7) of Benton.
If the Golden Tide bantam loses, he will have to wrestle again in the first round of consolation matches that wraps up the session that begins at 9 a.m.
Championship quarterfinals and the consolation second round will start at 9 a.m. Friday and be followed by the consolation third round.
Survivors will return at 7:30 p.m. for the championship semifinals and consolation quarterfinals and consolation semifinals.
A Parade of Champions at 1:45 p.m. will precede Saturday’s championship and consolation finals.
No less than nine of last year’s gold medalists are returning.
Back at the same weight are Cole Matthews of Reynolds at 120, Jonathan Gabriel of Bedford at 126, Greg Bulsak of South Park at 170 and Dakota Geer of Franklin at 182.
Up one weight are Gavin Teasdale of Jefferson-Morgan at 113, George “Micky” Phillippi of Derry at 138, Mike Carr of South Fayette at 145 and Jake Wentzel of South Park at 160.
Max Murin of Central Cambria has jumped two weights to 126.
Complete brackets courtesy PA-Wrestling.com:
