Sandwiched in between two of the toughest tournaments every year, Super 32 in mid-October and Ironman in early December, is The Surge, a relatively new event from PA Power that still attracts some notable top talent- in particular from Pennsylvania. And when looking at the field that is set for this weekend, we could get some very nice elite match ups serving as a preview for possible rematches in Ohio next month.
The most notable of all of these is at 145 (PA uses its own weight classes) where #1 in the country Pierson Manville is in the same bracket as #2 Melvin Miller. Miller is coming off a Super 32 title and the only thing standing in his way from a national #1 ranking is state champ Manville. With State College competing at AAA and McCort at AA, this is a match up of the two favorites to win next March but now we could at least get to see them go at it head to head. And it turns out they’re both at Ironman as well so the winner might have to turn around and defend that victory in short order.
Of course, just because you’re the top seed doesn’t mean you make it to the finals. Upsets seem to always happen. And there is other top 15 kid in this 145 bracket, Jack Consiglio of Malvern Prep who might have something to say for example in a semifinals against Miller. Consiglio will also be at Ironman so these 3 will get familiar with each other if they haven’t already.
So, if you’re not already doing anything else, and you want to catch some elite competition, tune into 145 of The Surge.
As for the rest of the weights, we’ll look at the current projected top 8 seeds and what stands out.
114 should be a good battle in the semifinals between Matt O’Neill and Dom Deputy. Odd that O’Neill has wins over like all this bracket but only gets a 5 seed. He even has the head to head over Deputy the last time they wrestled. But that was close. So, I might say the 8th grader is the favorite to win this weekend, that semifinal will be the best match to catch here.
121 is a good mix of fringe top 25ish type kids from PA. I think I have Pisarchick ranked slightly higher than Fanella and Sledzianowski, but no result here between the top 3 would really surprise me.
I would guess Matt’s brother, Nik O’Neill is the biggest favorite of any weight at 127.
Any chance to watch Bo Bassett is a good time for fans of the sport. But for him the question is how dominant will he be. His top challenger is Tahir Parkins who also carries a top 10 ranking nationally. Unfortunately for him, Bo knows top 10 wins.
139 will be a good chance to catch Mason Gibson’s return. We’ll what weight he ends up at as the season progresses but here at 139, he should come away with the win.
152 could be interesting between PA and NJ state medalists. The difference between them is that Ballante has been extremely busy this off-season, and picked up a bunch of nationally ranked wins. This has him sitting solidly in a consensus top 15 position. If he’s not on his A game, Walizer could absolutely pull this out.
At 160, I have Weidemoyer top 15 and Cunningham just outside the top 25. This should be one of the better finals across the board. I’m not disregarding the rest of the bracket, Magro might test Wiedemoyer in that semifinal. In the end, I’ll be very interested in this possible Weidemoyer Cunningham final.
I’m curious what Wyoming Seminary does from 144 up to 175. They have about 6 guys for those 5 spots. I think Evanitsky slots in at 144 with Bouzakis at 150 and Sealey at 157. Then there’s Chris Crawford, Jake Dailey, and Dom Federici to figure out 165 and 175. Out of the 3, Dailey is in this field at 172. He gets sophomore Adam Waters fresh off a freshman state title run. Waters might be one of the best pound for pound in the entire state. He’s a solid favorite against this field.
I don’t know the rest of the weights enough to really even give a prediction or say what matches might be must-see.
Another thing to add in here, like a wild card of sorts, is the Japanese team Pitt Bull that no one really has any idea how they do. I have to guess they don’t train a ton of American folkstyle wrestling but to some extent wrestling is wrestling so we shall see.
I have the top 8 seeds (except 285 where there are only 5) listed below.
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Based in Western PA. Right in the heart of WPIAL country, Todd brings an insider’s view from the country’s epicenter of wrestling. He’s excited to build on the TKDWN tradition of starting with the story first. The athletes, the coaches, their families and supporters, there is no shortage of stories to tell. And Todd will bring his unique perspective to help us continue to deliver top notch content for the world’s greatest sport!
