WPIAL to hold dual meet tournament for girls wrestling
Connellsville has plenty of experience in the WPIAL dual meet championship on the boys side, as the Falcons have qualified for the District 7 tournament all 47 years it has been contested.
Connellsville coach Bill Swink hopes the girls team can begin a streak of success this upcoming season, as the WPIAL will feature a dual meet championship for girls wrestling.
The details of the tournament have not been released, but the district features 18 girls teams, and are grouped together into one classification.
Washington & Jefferson College hosted the Southwest PA Girls Invitational last season, and Swink was pleased with the event where his team placed third behind champion Canon-McMillan and runner-up Mount Lebanon.
“Girls wrestling is growing, and I believe the opportunities for them to compete will help the sport grow further,” Swink said. “We competed in an unofficial WPIAL tournament and it went well. At this time, there will not be a PIAA dual meet championship, but we hope that time will come.”
Swink has a special place in his heart for the dual meet championship, which is not competed in every state, as he experienced during his time coaching in Virginia.
“I think wrestling is a team and individual sport, but when you have a dual meet tournament to determine a team champion, that increases the importance of the team aspect,” Swink said. “It gives the non-starters an opportunity to shine. In the five years I’ve been here as head coach, we have been able to insert kids into the lineup that would not normally start, and they have contributed to our success. “We have had kids lose matches and be the hero because they had to avoid being pinned to save points for the team. The kids get excited for their teammates, and are just as excited for the others to win as themselves.”
The 1982 graduate of Connellsville Area High School guided the Falcons’ program at Junior High West for seven seasons prior to taking jobs at Stafford, C.D. Hylton, North Stafford and Louisa County High Schools in Virginia as an assistant coach.
Swink was the head coach at North Stafford and Osbourn Park High School in the mid-1990s before leading the program at Colonial Forge High School for 17 seasons.
Following Swink’s retirement from administration and teaching, he returned to his stomping grounds and accepted the head coaching position for the 2021-22 season.
Swink guided the boys program to an eighth WPIAL dual meet championship in 2024. Connellsville was third in the PIAA dual meet tournament in 2025.
Swink hopes the emergence of a dual meet championship will encourage other girls to compete in wrestling.
“When you go to the other schools, there are a lot of folks who don’t understand they aren’t competing against the guys,” Swink said. “It’s important to keep getting that message out.”
The Falcons are not alone in competing as a team, as Beth-Center and Southmoreland wrestled in dual meets last year.
Albert Gallatin, Laurel Highlands, Mount Pleasant and West Greene had individuals compete last season, but didn’t participate in any dual meets.
BOYS DUAL MEET TOURNAMENT TO INCREASE
In the boys dual meet tournaments, there will be 27 teams in both classifications.
The WPIAL will have three groups compete across three sections. The winners of each group will compete in a tri-meet to determine the section champions. The second and third-place teams will also wrestle in a tri-meet to determine their placement in the team tournament.
The WPIAL Wrestling Committee will determine the host sites for each tri-meet.
“With the tri-meet being added, our guys will get another two matches,” Swink said. “Those will not count against our team points when it comes to home many competitions will be able to wrestle in for the season. We have beefed up our schedule even more this year. It will be a meat grinder.”
The individual postseason will have a change, as the eighth-place finisher from the WPIAL Class 3A tournament will advance to the Western Regional. The top five in the Western Regional will still qualify for the individual state tournament.