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D9 Duals Saturday: Raiders gun for fourth straight 2A title

The Brookville Raiders won last year’s PIAA Class 2A Dual Meet Championship in Hershey. They’ll seek a fourth straight District 9 title Saturday in DuBois.

Schedule

DuBOIS — The District 9 Dual Meet Wrestling Championships are set for DuBois Area High School Saturday and 10 teams — six in Class 2A and four in Class 3A — will be gunning for district titles.

In Class 2A, the top two finishers advance beyond the weekend with the champion landing in the first round at Hershey’s Giant Center next Thursday while the runner-up advances to Monday’s preliminary round against the District 4 runner-up at a site and time to be announced. The winner of that match would then head to Hershey Thursday.

The runner-up spot could be settled with a “True-Second” match following the final if the loser of the championship game did not beat the third-place finisher.

Class 3A is actually a District 4/9 event with Shikellamy joining DuBois, Clearfield and St. Marys. Only the champion heads to Hershey next Thursday.

Here’s a closer look at each team, sorted by seeding:

CLASS 2A

SEEDING ORDER: 1. Brookville, 2. Coudersport, 3. Ridgway, 4. Clarion, 5. Brockway, 6. Redbank Valley.

WHO ADVANCES? Champion and runner-up. The D9 champion opens against the winner of the District 11 runner-up vs. District 3 third-place matchup on Monday on Thursday in the first round. The District 9 runner-up wrestles the District 4 runner-up Monday in a preliminary round matchup at a site and time to be announced.

BROOKVILLE

Raiders will wrestle the Clarion-Brockway winner in the semifinals. The Raiders were supposed to wrestle Coudersport Tuesday, but the match was postponed. They’ve wrestled the other four teams in the tournament, beating Ridgway (51-13), Clarion (59-6), Brockway (54-21) and Redbank Valley (69-12).

The defending state champion Raiders seek their fourth straight district title and fifth in the past six years and anything short of that at the district level would be a major upset.

State-ranked wrestlers (as per papowerwrestling.com): Keelan Kunselman (Sr., No. 2 at 113), Gavin Park (Sr., No. 4 at 120), Caleb Hetrick (Jr., No. 5 at 152), Noah Cieleski (Sr., No. 7 at 182), Xavier Molnar (Jr., No. 12 at 195), Tyler Cook (Jr., No. 3 at 220).

Northwest Regional rankings (excluding state-ranked wrestlers, who are higher, as per papowerwrestling.com): Parker Fleming (Fr., No. 10 at 106), Kai Sorbin (Jr., No. 5 at 126), Dontae Constable (Sr., No. 7 at 132).

COUDERSPORT

While there’s a strong consensus that Brookville will walk away with another district title, the main storyline of the day will be who manages to grab the runner-up spot. The Falcons appear to have that edge going in as their seeding indicates.

The Falcons’ lone decision against the tournament field was a 43-32 win over Ridgway on Jan. 12.

State-ranked wrestlers: Gage Arnold (Sr., No. 8 at 160).

Northwest Regional rankings: Trevor Olney (Sr., No. 11 at 120).

RIDGWAY

The Elkers are 2-2 against the tournament field. They beat Redbank Valley (36-34), one week after their loss to Coudersport and beat Brockway (45-27) along with their lopsided loss to Brookville.

State-ranked wrestlers: Kyle Bush (Jr., No. 27 at 113), Bryce Barclay (Jr., No. 18 at 126), Logan McClain (Jr., No. 22 at 138), Colton McClain (Sr., No. 9 at HWT).

Northwest Regional rankings: Kyle Bush (Jr., No. 6 at 113), Lukas McClain (Jr., No. 6 at 132).

CLARION

The Bobcats just beat Brockway 40-22 Thursday and will wrestle them again in the preliminary round Saturday in the 4-5 matchup. They lost to Brookville in December, but won’t wrestle Redbank Valley or Ridgway until after the Duals.

State-ranked wrestlers: Colton Rapp (Jr., No. 15 at 160).

Northwest Regional rankings: Mike LeFay (Sr., No. 8 at 152), Ben Smith (Fr., No. 10 at 195), Tom Wurster (Jr., No. 6 at 220).

BROCKWAY

The Rovers get another crack at Clarion on Saturday after losing to them Thursday. They’re 1-3 against the playoff field, with the losses to Brookville, Clarion and Ridgway and a 38-37 tiebreaker win over Redbank Valley.

State-ranked wrestlers: None

Northwest Regional rankings: Anthony Glasl (Fr., No. 10 at 113), Garrett McClintick (Jr., No. 10 at 182), Pierce Yahner (Jr., No. 13 at 195), Mark Latuska (Sr., No. 8 at 220), Hayden Thompson (So., No. 11 at HWT).

REDBANK VALLEY

The Bulldogs are winless against the playoff field, but lost by a combined three points in their losses to Ridgway and Brockway. They’ll wrestle Clarion after the Duals.

State-ranked wrestlers: None

Northwest Regional rankings: Ethan Wiant (So., No. 6 at 106), Brayden Altobelli (Jr., No. 11 at 113).

CLASS AAA

SEEDING ORDER: 1. DuBois, 2. St. Marys, 3. Shikellamy, 4. Clearfield

WHO ADVANCES? Champion advances to next Thursday’s first round in Hershey against the District 10 champion.

DuBOIS

The top-seeded Beavers have wins over St. Marys (37-33) and Clearfield (43-24) in December. They didn’t wrestle Shikellamy, but are 2-0 against D4 schools Selinsgrove (39-27) and Jersey Shore (51-21). Shikellamy beat those teams as well, 46-16 and 53-18 respectively.

State-ranked wrestlers: Trenton Donahue (Fr., No. 21 at 106), Ed Scott (Fr., No. 12 at 113), Dalton Woodrow (So., No. 23 at 126), Kolby Ho (Jr., No. 13 at 132), Carson Hanna (Sr., No. 16 at 160), Dave Henninger (Sr., No. 19 at 195).

Northwest Regional rankings (excluding state-ranked wrestlers, who are higher, as per papowerwrestling.com): Brock Adams (Sr., No. 5 at 145).

ST. MARYS

The Dutch lost to the Beavers and beat Clearfield 33-30 on Jan. 12 in their regular-season matchups against the tournament field.

State-ranked wrestlers: Tyler Dilley (So., No. 16 at 120), Alec Bittner (No. 12 at 138), Cameron Resch (Sr., No. 17 at 145), Christian Steffen (Sr., No. 21 at 220).

Northwest Regional rankings (excluding state-ranked wrestlers, who are higher, as per papowerwrestling.com): Tylor Herzing (Fr., No. 5 at 106), Hayden Tettis (Jr., No. 11 at 126), Garret Cook (Sr., No. 4 at 152), Mitchell Cashmer (Sr., No. 6 at 195).

SHIKELLAMY

Located in Sunbury in Northumberland County and a little over two hours from DuBois, Shikellamy joins the tournament as a District 4 representative. The Braves are 10-5 with losses to Bellefonte, Central Mountain, Bald Eagle Area, Line Mountain and Bayard-Rustin.

State-ranked wrestlers: Jordan Hepler (Sr., No. 17 at 170)

Northwest Regional rankings (excluding state-ranked wrestlers, who are higher, as per papowerwrestling.com): Frank Quinones (Jr., No. 9 at 120), John Supsic (Sr., No. 7 at 126), Dominic Parker (Sr., No. 7 at 152), Pierson White (Sr., No. 5 at 160), Josh Krieger (Jr., No. 7 at 195).

CLEARFIELD

The defending 3A champion Bison will try to flip their result with the Beavers from December.

State-ranked wrestlers: Luke McGonigal (Jr., No. 3 at 182)

Northwest Regional rankings (excluding state-ranked wrestlers, who are higher, as per papowerwrestling.com): Matt Ryan (Jr., No. 4 at 120), Jude Pallo (So., No. 10 at 126), Hunter Wright (Jr., No. 8 at 145), Zane Morgan (Sr., No. 8 at 160), Hunter Bumbarger (Sr., No. 8 at 220), Trae Kitko (So., No. 11 at HWT).