PIAA, WPIAL delay team wrestling championships

By: Chris Harlan
Tuesday, December 22, 2020 | 6:44 PM

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The PIAA remains committed to crowning team wrestling champions this winter, but for now it doesn’t know when or where.

The PIAA board voted Tuesday to postpone its team tournament until a date to be determined. The team tournament was delayed until after individual state champions are crowned March 12-13, flipping the traditional order of the PIAA postseason schedule.

The team tournament originally was scheduled to start Feb. 8 with the finals Feb. 12-13 at Giant Center in Hershey, but the PIAA board was concerned schools wouldn’t have adequate time to complete their regular seasons.

The team championship could be held as late as March 29-30, PIAA executive director Bob Lombardi said.

“We’re going to put everything on the table to possibly have a team champion because it’s important to the membership,” Lombardi said. “When we met as a wrestling steering committee, it was a consensus of the committee that we want to make all efforts that we can. What the board did today provides us maximum flexibility.”

However, delaying the team championship could cause a scheduling conflict at Giant Center, Lombardi said.

In reponse to the PIAA decision, the WPIAL delayed its team championship an additional week. The new dates for the WPIAL team tournament rounds are Feb. 8, 10 and 13.

Here’s the updated postseason schedule for #WPIAL and #PIAA wrestling this winter #HSSN pic.twitter.com/4fv5idQl6o

— Chris Harlan (@CHarlan_Trib) December 23, 2020

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.