Random-draw PIAA wrestling brackets sought

by Rod Frisco, Patriot-News

Posted on March 27, 2009

Meanwhile, swimming state fields could be determined by times

It is an exercise nearly as old as the PIAA Wrestling Championships.

Every autumn, the PIAA releases the individual brackets. And every winter, those brackets are examined and perused to the core, possibly to glean some measure of advantage come March.

But that might be a thing of the past.

At its annual gathering Thursday at PIAA headquarters in Upper Allen Twp., the PIAA's wrestling steering committee proposed that the brackets no longer be distributed publicly prior to the PIAA Wrestling Championships.

Instead, it will ask the PIAA to randomly draw the brackets on the day following the completion of the regional tournaments, starting next year.

In addition, the swimming and diving committee made a similarly bold proposal, asking the PIAA to change its policy of using proportional representation to determine qualifiers to its state championship.

The measure would qualify only district meet champions automatically, filling in the remaining spots in the 32-swimmer field based strictly on district meet times rather than district meet places.

Both proposals will be presented to the PIAA Board of Directors at its meeting on May 20-21 at the Four Points Sheraton in Chambersburg.

If approved, the wrestling proposal will change a long-stranding policy of letting everyone -- wrestlers, coaches, the public -- know in advance which regional placers will match up for the state tournament. One of the reasons is to eliminate any concern about mischief with the pairings.

But that policy also enables coaches and wrestlers to make a reasonable determination who they might face from an opposing region in either the preliminary round or the quarterfinals. The pre-drawn brackets are especially advantageous to District 3-AAA wrestlers.

District 3-AAA is both a district and PIAA regional tournament, and the tournament is wrestled one weekend before the state's remaining regional tournaments. That has given 3-AAA participants the opportunity to scout potential opponents during the regional tournament weekend.

A random bracket draw (the PIAA uses five different patterns for the AAA championships) will make it impossible to determine the likely state pairings ahead of time.

The swimming proposal flies directly in the face of the PIAA's current policy for determining state qualifiers in all sports, not just swimming and diving. The measure would have to meet with two-thirds majority approval because it requires a change of policy.

There was vigorous debate among committee members about the effect of the new super suits -- the Speedo LZR Racer and the Blue Seventy suits -- worn by numerous swimmers at the PIAA championships this year.

The suits, made popular by American swimmers in the Beijing Olympics, supposedly provide a swimmer greater buoyancy in the water. Like the Olympics, the PIAA meet was packed with records; there were meet records established in 22 of 44 swimming events, and some of those records were broken multiple times during the meet.

But in the end, no action was taken. The committee deferred to the upcoming National Federation of High Schools meeting in Indianapolis, where the issue will be addressed at a national level.

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