I have written in this space in the past that District 6 needs to come up with a better way of seeding teams for the District 6 Duals, and I'm saying it again.
The system needs to be rebuilt.
The way teams qualify for the Duals is similar to how teams get seeded for football, basketball, softball and baseball. It's all based on points.
Class AAA teams get 100 points for beating a AAA foe and 80 for beating a AA team. Class AA teams get 120 for beating a Class AAA opponent and 100 for beating another Class AA team. Plus, those teams get points for every win their opponents get.
It's the same system that nearly caused Penn Cambria to not be seeded and did cause former Duals champion Tyrone to not be in the top eight.
Juniata Valley is having its best season in a long time and seems to be on the rise, but Tyrone would have been a better team for top-seeded Huntingdon to face in the quarterfinals. The Bearcats routed JV, 64-6, in the quarters, and two days later beat Tyrone, 48-18, in a regular season match.
If it hadn't been for Glendale pulling out of Duals consideration because of the Mount Union fiasco, the Vikings would have been the seventh seed and Penn Cambria would have been the eighth seed and faced Huntingdon in the quarterfinals.
Did anybody really believe that Westmont Hilltop was the fourth best Class AA team coming into the Duals? The Hilltoppers eventually won the title, beating Forest Hills, 36-23, in the finals.
That's after the Hilltoppers beat Huntingdon, 33-27, in the semifinals, thanks in large part to a defensive pin. Most wrestling followers agree that those two should have been wrestling in the finals.
Did anyone really believe that Bellefonte should have been the fourth seed and on the same side of the bracket as Central Mountain?
The Red Raiders had beaten third-seeded Altoona, 47-19, on Jan. 20 and has lost, 40-30, to Central Mountain, which is the closest anybody in the district has come to beating the Wildcats.
It says here a more sensible way of putting together seeds for the Duals would be to scrap the power points and have a district expert or experts do the seeding. It doesn't have to be the same person for both classes.
I would appoint Off the Mat Class AA editor Mark Dugan to do the Class AA seeding and King of the Mountain director Norman Palovcsik to do the Class AAA seeding.
Makes sense, doesn't it?
Rugged bracket
Consider what Central Mountain most likely has on its side of the bracket in this weekend's PIAA Team Duals:
District 11 champion Northampton, which is ranked higher than the Wildcats nationally, in the quarterfinals, and if CM wins that, defending Duals champion Central Dauphin, which is also ranked higher, in the semifinals.
"We have a real rough bracket," CM coach Doug Buckwalter said, "but I guess you have to beat everybody if you're going to win it anyway. We're going to go down and try our best."
Todd Irwin can be reached at 946-7464 or at tirwin@altoonamirror.com.
