Local teams at POWERade tournament

Westmont Hilltop will return to the POWERade tournament at Canon-McMillan on Friday and Saturday while Chestnut Ridge will be in the field for the first time. If you've never been to the event, it's quite an experience. It's the top tournament in Pennsylvania and the third-toughest in the nation according to WrestlingReport, ranking behind only the Walsh Ironman and the Beast of the East.
If you can't make it to Canonsburg, you can watch it live on FloWrestling, although I believe that requires a FloPro account. Two District 6 Class AAA teams - Altoona and Mifflin County - also are in it.
The POWERade website is a good one and has all of the details about it on there, including the list of all 46 - yes 46! - teams in it, but here are a few of the amazing stats for those of you too lazy to click on that last link:

• 56 returning wrestlers who competed in the 2013 Pennsylvania State Tournament
• 24 individual state championships
• 40 wrestlers who competed in other state tournaments
• 10 wrestlers who competed in the National Prep Tournament
• 8 Super 32 champions

Intermat also has a nice preview of the event that includes some of the most prominent national names.

Here are the local wrestlers entered in it:

Chestnut Ridge

106-Aaron Burkett, fifth seed

113-Blake Dunlap, unseeeded

120-Dustin Ickes, unseeded

126-Morgan Deremer, unseeded

132-Sam Shank, unseeded

138-Derrick Claar, unseeded

145-Colby Hillegass, unseeded

152-Trent Crouse, unseeded

160-Brandyn Beaver, unseeded

170-Ben Clark, unseeded

182-Conner Buttry, unseeded

195-Kyle Winegardner, unseeded

220-Jonathan Heming, unseeded

285-Austin Buttry, fifth

The fact that Burkett is seeded the same as Austin Buttry, a returning state placewinner, probably says as much about the fact that 106 tends to have a ton of young wrestlers without much a varsity resume in it as anything. This isn't meant as a knock on Burkett - he's a solid wrestler - but placing fifth in this field would be quite an accomplishment. I'd guess that there will be a few unseeded wrestlers from proven powers that fare well here. Altoona's C.J. Manley also is in the field.

It will be interesting to see how Austin Buttry fares in a weight that includes national No. 2 Thomas Haines of Solanco as well as state placewinners from Ohio and West Virginia.

Westmont Hilltop

106-None

113-Logan Blackburn, unseeded

120-Devon Gilbert, unseeded

126-Dorian Drake, unseeded

132-Dan Yost, unseeded

138-Nick Mical, unseeded

145-None

152-Mark Barbera, unseeded

160-None

170-None

182-Colin Barron, unseeded

195-Jake Buck, unseeded

220-Sbeitan Hussein, unseeded

285-None

This year's squad obviously isn't the Hilltoppers team that had multiple contenders for medals a few years ago, but I am surprised to see so many holes in the lineup. I'm sure that some out there will jump to conclusions regarding the whole "mat herpes hysteria" surrounding Westmont a few weeks ago, but my guess is that some of the new guys in the Westmont room just aren't ready for this level of competition. The wrestlers listed on Westmont's NWCA page at 106, 145, 160 and 170 are a combined 0-18 and no one is listed at 285.

I definitely see some Hilltoppers winning a couple of matches in the tournament, but they would really have to perform well to place. Blackburn made a wise decision in getting down to 113, as 120 is the tournament's toughest weight.