Early Postseason Thoughts

   I haven't had a post on here since late last week when Chestnut Ridge was at the state team duals in Hershey. I kept busy while I was there covering the Lions, and received sad news over the weekend that someone close to me and my immediate family had passed away unexpectedly, so that and my normal job duties have taken up my time.
   With the district and/or sectional tournaments taking place this weekend (D6-AA in Altoona already underway despite a delay with reported bracketing issues), here's a couple of tidbits.
   Hopefully you've checked out my preview of tomorrow's District 5 Tournament, which was in today's Bedford Gazette. The tournament is a one-day only event at UPJ, beginning at 9 a.m. with the preliminary bouts.
   In looking at sectional brackets around the state, a couple of things caught my eye. Jefferson-Morgan's Bill Bowlen has moved up to 195 pounds for the individual postseason. Bowlen, a state placewinner at 182 last season, had begun the year back there and finished second to Greenville's Blake Reynolds at the Thomas Tournament. There are two defending state champions at the weight, Franklin's Dakota Geer and South Park's Greg Bulsak.
   One that I thought was a bit surprising is Reynolds' Seth Hogue deciding to go at 145. The state runner-up to Bedford's Jonathan Gabriel last year at 126 has wrestled at 145 a good bit during the team season, but I would have guessed he would be at 138 or even at 132 come mid-February. Hogue competed at 132 in the Powerade Tournament in late December.
   I've been talking about 126 all season in Class AA and it's going to be be fun. Why, you ask? Because we have three, yes three, returning state champions at this weight for the postseason. Gabriel won 126 a year ago, while Central Cambria's Max Murin took the 113-pound crown, and Reynolds' Cole Matthews won it at 120.
   I know there have been years where two state champions are at one weight class when we get back to Hershey, but has there ever been this loaded of a field with three of them? Besides those studs, we need to throw in Athens' Brian Courtney, the state runner-up to Matthews, and Lancaster Catholic's Joe Lobeck, the state runner-up to Murin. Wow!
   We saw a mini-preview at the Thomas Tournament, with Gabriel beating Courtney 6-5 for the title while Courtney edged Murin by the same score in the semifinals.
   It will be interesting to see this how this state bracket looks in three weeks. While the brackets are pre-drawn and randomly chosen, the state will separate state champions if there are two in a certain class. How will it look with three? Well, we can probably bet that Gabriel and Murin will wrestle in the Southwest Regional finals. Regional finalists are also placed in opposite halves of the state bracket. Let's say the regional champions will be either Gabriel or Murin in the Southwest, Matthews in the Northwest, Courtney in the Northeast, and Lobeck in the Southeast. That would leave the Gabriel-Murin loser hitting another of these standouts in the quarterfinals. As a fan, you don't want to miss this weight class.