Burrell takes positives out of ‘Ultimate Duals’

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, January 23, 2018 | 12:04 AM

Burrell glimpsed some of its top competition from the WPIAL and state at Saturday's “Ultimate Duals” at Brookville High School, and coach Josh Shields said he thought his team stacked up well.

The Bucs finished the day with wins over Freedom and South Fayette and losses to Brookville, Chestnut Ridge and Reynolds. The victories came over teams who are among the top challengers to Burrell in the upcoming WPIAL Class AA tournament; the losses came to teams who are top contenders for the PIAA title.

Burrell posted a 41-22 win over Freedom, the team the Bucs beat in each of the past two WPIAL title matches, and a 57-15 win over South Fayette. Reynolds, the defending state champion, beat the Bucs, 48-13, while the other defeats came in more tightly contested matches: 39-23 against Brookville and 37-21 against Chestnut Ridge.

“We were in four of the five matches,” Shields said. “Reynolds is very solid. Chestnut Ridge and Brookville, there were a lot of one-point matches that we lost. Those one-point matches go the other way, we could be sitting here 4-1.”

Next up for Burrell is the Section 3-AA team wrestling tournament Wednesday as the Bucs seek their 15th consecutive section title.

Doug Gulasy is a Tribune-Review staff writer.

Tags: Burrell