Greater Latrobe was the odd team out last season.

Which team will be left home this year when the WPIAL Class AAA team tournament takes place?

"It looks like a re-do of last year," Latrobe coach Marc Billett said. "We have three strong teams and only two can qualify for the team tournament. Hopefully, we're not the team that's left out again this year."

Prior to last season, the WPIAL Wrestling Steering Committee switched to an alignment that divided each section into two sub-sections. That left Latrobe, Derry Area and Penn-Trafford in the same sub-section in Section 1-AAA.

"It's a brutal sub-section," Derry coach Mike Wood said. "We have three teams battling for two spots. Somebody will be left at home when the team tournament begins."

Derry won the sub-section last year with a pair of narrow victories against Penn-Trafford and Latrobe. Penn-Trafford finished second. That left Latrobe wondering what if ...

"All three teams deserved to be in the team tournament last year," Penn-Trafford coach Larry Hohman said. "And the same is true this year. We just have to work hard and hope we qualify."

Four starters graduated from last season's Derry squad, which posted a 13-3 record after advancing to the WPIAL quarterfinals. All four were 20-match winners last season.

"We should be pretty comparable to what we were last year," said Wood. "The difference is that we will have a little more senior leadership. We had four seniors last year and five this year. We have a chance to be even better if our younger kids step up."

Derry has five returnees who recorded 20 or more wins last season, including a pair of PIAA place-winners. James Gulibon (39-1 at 103) was a freshman sensation, winning both WPIAL and PIAA titles. Travis Shaffer (36-5 at 135) is a two-time state place-winner and two-time WPIAL finalist.

The other returning 20-match winners from last season are: Tyler Leitza (25-12 at 160), Nick Sofranko (24-9 at 171) and Ben Horwatt (25-14 at 285). Also back for Derry is Dante DeCario (19-13 at 119), a WPIAL fourth-place finisher.

Five starters for Latrobe graduated, including a pair of PIAA runners-up, Nathan Pennessi and Joey Walters. The Wildcats finished with a 9-3 record.

"We will have a young team, but a little more experienced than last year's team," Billett said. "We only have two seniors. We will find out right away how good we are. We face Connellsville [last season's WPIAL runner-up] in our first match."

Latrobe has six returnees who had 20 or more wins last season, Chace Small (28-8 at 103), Ty Lydic (26-9 at 119), Ryan Walters (21-14 at 130), Derrick Zavatsky (27-14 at 152), Scott Mohring (22-12 at 160) and Eric Shaffer (25-8 at 189).

Penn-Trafford sustained the most graduation attrition, as the Warriors had seven starters depart, including a pair of PIAA place-winners. The Warriors are hoping to improve on last year's 13-3 mark.

"It will be hard to replace those starters, but I'm very pleased with the group of kids we have coming back along with a talented group of newcomers who have been waiting for their chance to start," Homan said. "And we had the best offseason. We had kids lifting three days a week for seven months."

Penn-Trafford has five returnees who recorded 20 or more wins: Ryan Bohince (28-10 at 112), Jake Matthews (31-12 at 140), Trevor Gibson (21-14 at 152), Matt Grupp (20-12 at 215) and Zach Baker (24-14 at 285).

Franklin Regional and Kiski Area were the top two teams in the other sub-section in Section 1-AAA. Both are expected to finish at the top again this year.

Kiski Area had only two starters graduate from last year's squad, which posted a 15-9 record.

"Most of our team is back," Kiski Area coach Chuck Tursky said. "And we have three really good freshmen coming in. We should have a pretty good team."

The Cavaliers have six starters who registered 20 or more wins last season returning: Adam Rosensteel (27-15 at 112), Beau Grzybek (20-16 at 130), Mike McCutcheon (22-3 at 140), Justin Harold (30-9 at 145), Zack Shannon (29-7 at 152) and Bill Emerick (25-13 at 171).

Franklin Regional had four starters from last season's 19-9 squad graduate. The Panthers have five returning starters who posted 20 or more wins, including two-time WPIAL champion and two-time PIAA place-winner Nico Megaludis (46-0 at 112), who committed to Penn State prior to starting his junior year.

The other four returnees with 20 or more wins are Trevor Medlang (25-9 at 119), Anthony Petrarca (35-10 at 130), Ben Johnson (22-15 at 135) and Andrew Farbarik (25-17 at 152).

Hempfield won the Section 2-AAA title last year. The Spartans will have a tough time defending that title, as seven starters have graduated, including a foursome who combined to win 58 bouts last season.

Spartans coach Vince DeAugustine does have six starters back who recorded 20 or more wins, including PIAA runner-up Paul Bewak (36-12 at 103). The other five are Vinnie Vitolo (20-12 at 112), Jake Vitolo (21-22 at 119), Garrett Swarm (27-13 at 125), Domenic Testa (30-15 at 145) and Dante Nania (25-12 at 171).

Central Catholic is a team to watch in Section 4-AAA. The Vikings have all but one starter back from last year's squad, including a pair of PIAA qualifiers, Tyler Zymroz (33-5 at 119) and Lorenzo Thomas (37-4 at 130).

Other Vikings who had 20 or more wins are: Matt Bradley (21-10 at 103), Eric Nutter (30-7 at 125), Perry Hills (23-8 at 152), Bobby Haraczy (25-10 at 171), Stephawn Featherstone (20-17 at 189) and Trey Cole (20-11 at 285).

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