06-03-2025
Bishop McCort hunting history in PIAA Wrestling Championships
HERSHEY, Pa. (WTAJ) – Arguably no team competing in the 2025 PIAA Individual Wrestling Championships in Hershey has higher expectations than Bishop McCort. Last year, the Crushers scored the third-most team points ever but finished in second place behind nationally No. 1 ranked Faith Christian.
PIAA Individual Wrestling Championships preview
After the tournament, Bishop McCort phenom Bo Bassett said that he and his teammates were hungry for more. In the week leading up to the event, the 2024 PIAA Champion says that hasn't changed.
'Obviously the goal is to always win the tournament but if we can set records and go down in history, that's one step above,' Bassett said. 'That's what we're shooting for, and we've got an awesome team race that's going to go down this weekend.'
Faith Christian has been the one hurdle that Bishop McCort hasn't been able to leap over in the past few seasons. To go along with winning the team race in the 2024 PIAA Individual Championships, the Lions have defeated the Crushers in the finals of back-to-back PIAA Team Championships.
'We've won every single tournament we've been at this year except Ironman where they were at and then the (state championship) duel with them,' Bishop McCort junior Jax Forrest said.
The postseason shortcomings have given Bishop McCort plenty of motivation to get over the hump this season. Some members of the Crushers have been practicing upwards of four times a day to try and close the gap.
'It just keeps that fire burning inside and it just motivates the team and makes us better at the end of the day,' Bishop McCort senior Devon Magro said.
Bishop McCort is hitting its stride at the right time this year as they crushed three regional records last weekend. Plus, the Crushers had 12 wrestlers qualify for the PIAA Championships, which is more than Faith Christian.
'If we wrestle like we did last weekend, I know we'll beat them,' Forrest said.
There is also more star power on the team this season with Penn State commit Sam Herring returning from an injury that held him out of the postseason last year to go along with his younger brother Eli and Bo's younger brother Keegan.
'Our confidence is really high already, but some of those guys who wrestled really well, I think their confidence is probably higher right now and that's something that they needed,' Sam Herring said.
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'I like to think that we have the upper hand at this point going in but again, you never know what's going to happen this weekend,' Bo Bassett said.
A first-place team finish would mean even more to them than just being the best in Pennsylvania.
'For that one it would mean that we're the best in the country,' Sam Herring said. 'So, that's even cooler.'
After day one, the Crushers are currently leading all teams with 58.5 team points. Faith Christian trails them by four points.
If Bishop McCort brings the first-place team trophy back to Johnstown, they will be the first team within WTAJ's viewing area to have won the team title in the PIAA Individual Championships since Bald Eagle Area did so back in 1999.
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