D5 Tournament Preview

   It's only Monday and the District 5 Tournament at Windber is four days away, but I have put together a weekend preview below. I won't offer any predictions here, as I'll save those for my story for Friday's Bedford Gazette. I see there is also a chat tonight at 9 p.m. on Bleacher Coaches to discuss the tournament. If you haven't seen them, here is a link to the brackets — District 5 Brackets.

2014 District 5 Tournament

at Windber HS

Friday's Schedule

2 p.m. - Preliminaries
3:30 p.m. - Quarterfinals

Saturday's Schedule

10 a.m. - Semifinals/Consolations
6 p.m. - Consolation Finals, followed by Championship Finals

— Top three finishers advance to Class AA Southwest Regional —

Weight by Weight Breakdown
   106 - Top seed Aaron Burkett of Chestnut Ridge is the only wrestler in this bracket with at least 20 wins, and the sophomore has 31 this season and he is the heavy favorite.
   Quarterfinal to watch: Tussey Mountain's Oaklee Brode  vs. HOPE for Hyndman's Cameron Gibbner - Gibbner, seeded sixth, pinned third seed Brode earlier this month.

   113 - Another weight with a strong favorite, with Bedford's Jonathan Gabriel here. He pinned second seed Tommy DeArmitt of Berlin in a District 5 Duals semifinal. DeArmitt owns wins over third seed Blake Dunlap of Chestnut Ridge this year, but Dunlap pinned him in last year's quarterfinals. Dunlap is a defending runner-up at this weight. Fourth seed Trey Childers of Northern Bedford is also a returning regional qualifier, having placed third at 106 in 2013.
   Quarterfinal to watch: Dunlap vs. HOPE for Hyndman's Tanner Clites.

   120 - Berlin's Joe Swank appears as the favorite, but I think this weight is pretty deep for the second and third place finishers. While Swank should get to the final on top, the bottom half looks wide open, and I wouldn't be totally surprised if sixth seed Damian Jano of Somerset is in the final.
   Quarterfinals to watch: Chestnut Ridge's Dustin Ickes vs. North Star's Colton Gennett, Tussey Mountain's Dylan Park vs. Jano, HOPE for Hyndman's Robby Snyder vs. Bedford's Kyle Mehle.

   126 - I don't think there's a clear cut favorite at 126 going in. The top five seeds, Northern Bedford's Jared Helsley, Conemaugh Township's Kody Ofsanko, Bedford's Jake Warren, Chestnut Ridge's Morgan Deremer, and Berlin's E.J. Custer should be the ones vying for regional berths. Top seed Helsley beat second seed Ofsanko, but has two losses to third seed Warren and has split a pair of close bouts with fourth seed Deremer. I expect this to be one of the more fun weights to watch.
   Quarterfinal to watch: Deremer vs. Custer.

   132 - The top storyline heading into the event, at least from a Bedford County perspective, is Ryan Easter's attempt to join the District 5 four-time champion club. The Bedford senior is also closing in on the county wins record, set by four-timer Tyler Dibert of Chestnut Ridge just last season. Hard to see him lose inside the Windber gym this weekend, though Meyersdale's Tanner Hetrick is formidable.
   Quarterfinal to watch: Somerset's Austin Hemminger vs. Berlin's Kane McKenzie.

   138 - Most local fans are probably looking forward to another battle between Bedford's Garrett Thomas and Chestnut Ridge's Derrick Claar. Thomas beat Claar in the finals of the Thomas Subaru Tournament late last month. Here, Claar got the top seed over the Bedford foe based on the points. It shouldn't matter though, as it would take a big upset to see them not lock horns for the title.
   Quarterfinal to watch: Meyersdale's Brady McKenzie vs. Berlin's Storm McDonald - McKenzie has three wins over McDonald, but one was 4-2 and another was 3-2.

   145 - This is one of the toughest weights in the state, let alone District 5 which looks to be very good. Another situation where the second seed has a win (or two) over the top seed. Chestnut Ridge's Trent Crouse has beaten Berlin's Braden Fochtman twice, but his points were much lower and not enough to challenge the seeding based on head-to-head. I won't detail that here, as Eric Knopsnyder of the Tribune-Democrat did that this morning on his blog. You can see that on the link here — Knop's knotes. Meyersdale's Seth Deist is the third seed, while Bedford's Toby Brett is the fourth seed, but a two-time district champion. A solid wrestler will see his season end this weekend.
   Quarterfinal to watch: Wait for the semifinals.

   152 - Berlin's Taylor Cahill sits here as the favorite. He placed second at this weight last year while at Conemaugh Township. A pretty deep bracket that begins with North Star's Tevin Mostoller at the second seed, and also includes Somerset's Sheldon Wagner, Tussey Mountain's Quinn Barnett and Northern Bedford's Chris Eichelberger.
   Quarterfinal to watch: Barnett vs. Eichelberger.

   160 - Somerset County wrestlers hold the top four seeds here, beginning with No. 1 Bryce Fochtman of Berlin. I've never seen freshman Christian Hutzell of Meyersdale, the second seed, and my sample size on third seed Gus Strasiser of North Star is very small. That said, both have had really good seasons. Hutzell has kept two bouts with Fochtman pretty close, while he and Strasiser have split a pair of encounters.
   Quarterfinal to watch: Somerset's Mike Laue vs. Bedford's Daniel Brett — Brett beat Laue, 7-6, in a dual meet which was the decisive victory in Bedford's team win over Somerset.

   170 - Somerset's Landon Lohr is the top seed and I like his chances to get to the final. The second seed is Northern Bedford's Lucas Kolinchak, who has been one of the most improved wrestlers in the area. The sophomore already has 15 more wins than he had as a ninth-grader last year. He has two wins against third seed Kyle Winegardner of Chestnut Ridge, and that should be a good semifinal if it happens.
   Quarterfinal to watch: HOPE for Hyndman's Oscar Miller vs. North Star's Dillion Charlton.

   182 - On paper, I'd be surprised if we don't see Meyersdale's Gavin Berkley and Chestnut Ridge's Conner Buttry battling for the championship come Saturday night. The third spot should be a go between Chance Williams, Hunter Connor, Shane Pepper, and Mason Guyer.
   Quarterfinals to watch: Bedford's Williams vs. Northern Bedford's Guyer, North Star's Connor vs. Berlin's Pepper — Williams and Guyer have split, Conner has two pins on Pepper.

   195 - HOPE for Hyndman's Jake Bennett is a defending champion, but he won at 220 last year. He owns a win over second seed and freshman Toby Cahill of Berlin, though it was in overtime. Somerset's Logan Eller, the third seed, has improved greatly this season. That could be the top three here.
   Quarterfinal to watch: Meyersdale's Tristan Deal vs. North Star's Thomas Miller.

   220 - An interesting weight here, after Berlin's Stew Trulick who would have been the favorite suffered a season-ending injury. The top seed is Meyersdale's Ty Smith and North Star's Kevin Horner is the second seed. After that in order, it's HOPE for Hyndman's Chris Merkel, Berlin's Nate Zanoni, and Chestnut Ridge's Shane Davis.
   Quarterfinal to watch: Zanoni vs. Davis.

   285 - Chestnut Ridge's Austin Buttry is the top seed as he vies for his first district title. He has a win over second seed Devin Reed of Everett, who has some big wins to his name in his first season in District 5. The third seed is Berlin's Anthony Collins, who has shown good improvement over last year.
   Quarterfinals to watch: Collins vs. Bedford's Nate Shoemaker, Shade's Trevor Brown vs. HOPE for Hyndman's Brandon Greise.