It’s not often you get to see the number-one ranking in the nation decided at a state tournament, but that’s exactly what we could see this weekend in Altoona, PA at the PIAA AA Team State Championships. #1 Faith Christian Academy and #2 Bishop McCort will both have to win two duals before they see one another this weekend, with the winner in the final ultimately putting themselves in the driver’s seat to become the unofficial high school national team champions. 

These two teams have been center stage this high school season, as both have been incredibly dominant with plenty of individual titles and team titles at major tournaments and have throttled just about every other team this year. The journey to the showdown between these two powerhouses this weekend dates back to almost exactly one year ago when Faith Christian Academy and Bishop McCort met in the 2024 PIAA Team State Championship final. It was Faith Christian that picked up a couple of huge wins including Chase Hontz over #15 Sam Herring and Max Stein over #6 Melvin Miller en route to a 46-18 win for the Pennsylvania AA team crown. 

Listen to Faith Christian Academy Head Coach Ben Clymer after the 2024 PIAA Final win over Bishop McCort

Flash forward to Ironman in December where Faith Christian won the team title by 35.5 points off the efforts of three champions (Fred Bachmann, Joe Bachmann, and Adam Waters) as well as six other place winners. Bishop McCort finished as the runner-up in the team race with two champions (Jax Forrest, and Bo Bassett) and three other place winners. The win at Ironman gave Faith Christian Academy the #1 ranking in the country in The Flo 40 High School Wrestling Team Rankings and they had to put in on the line immediately just six days later in a dual against #3 Wyoming Seminary. Wyoming Seminary took that #1 ranking right back from Faith Christian with a 32-24 win on December 13th. 

Results from the next two weeks led to another reshuffling of the national team rankings as Faith Christian got back on the horse and won the Beast of the East by 21 points over Lake Highland Prep with two champions (Fred Bachmann, and Adam Waters) along with nine other place winners. The following weekend, Bishop McCort won an incredible team race at Powerade over Lake Highland Prep, Delbarton, Malvern Prep, St. Edward, and Wyoming Seminary that came down to the very last match where Melvin Miller defeated then #1 Alessio Perentin for the 160-pound title and the Powerade team title. Those results led to Faith Christian taking back the #1 ranking and Bishop McCort moving back up to #2. 

Watch Melvin Miller defeat Alessio Perentin at Powerade 

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Bishop McCort then traveled to #4 Wyoming Seminary just a little over a week later on January 8th for a FloWrestling Night In America dual where McCort got the ball rolling early and won 10 of the first 12 bouts on their way to a dominant 37-17 win. In the last month, the top two nationally ranked teams have held their positions with Faith Christian Academy winning their third major tournament title of the season at Escape the Rock and both teams have dominated in their Pennsylvania dual competition. 

On Tuesday night, both Faith Christian Academy and Bishop McCort secured their spots in the PIAA AA Team Championship Quarterfinals on Friday afternoon with opening-round wins. Faith Christian pitched their fourth dual shutout of the season over Northwestern Lehigh 75-0, while Bishop McCort defeated Corry Area 58-12. Following the win for McCort, #1 on the Class of 2026 High School Big Board Bo Bassett made his long-awaited college commitment, announcing that he will be joining the Iowa Hawkeyes following graduation next year. 

It’s official! Bo Bassett makes his college wrestling commitment to the University of Iowa pic.twitter.com/0vjwRQWdr7

— FloWrestling (@FloWrestling) February 5, 2025

Now the stage is set for the PIAA Team State Championships. Faith Christian Academy will be taking on Burrell in the quarterfinals Friday night at 5 pm ET in a dual they are heavily favored in and will get the winner of Bishop McDevitt and Erie Cathedral Prep Saturday morning at 10:30 am ET in the semifinals. Bishop McCort is on the bottom side of the bracket and will be taking on Mountoursville in the quarterfinals Friday night at 5 pm ET and then will get the winner between Chestnut Ridge and Berks Catholic in the semifinals Saturday morning at 10:30 am ET. If both these teams can do their jobs like they've done all year it will set up one of the most highly anticipated high school duals in recent memory for the #1 spot in the country. 

Probable Lineups:

#1 Faith Christian Academy (11-1) vs. #2 Bishop McCort (16-0)

107 - Shane Young, Faith Christian Academy vs. #13 Keegan Bassett, Bishop McCort

114 - #1 Fred Bachmann, Faith Christian Academy vs. Eli Herring, Bishop McCort

121 - #9 Gauge Botero, Faith Christian Academy vs. Jack Silfies, Bishop McCort

127 - #6 Joe Bachmann, Faith Christian Academy vs. Austin Carfley, Bishop McCort

133 - Henry Racich, Faith Christian Academy vs. #1 Jax Forrest, Bishop McCort

139 - Lincoln Botero, Faith Christian Academy vs. #10 Sam Herring, Bishop McCort

145 - Mason Wagner or Shane Wagner, Faith Christian Academy vs. #1 Bo Bassett or #14 Jackson Butler, Bishop McCort

152 - #14 Max Stein, Faith Christian Academy vs. #7 Devon Magro, Bishop McCort

160 - #18 Chase Hontz, Faith Christian Academy vs. #2 Melvin Miller, Bishop McCort

172 - #18 Nick Singer, Faith Christian Academy vs. C.J. Pensiero, Bishop McCort

189 - #3 Adam Waters, Faith Christian Academy vs. Matteo Noronha, Bishop McCort

215 - #19 Jason Singer, Faith Christian Academy vs. Marquez Gordon, Bishop McCort

285 - #9 Mark Effendian, Faith Christian Academy vs. Caleb Rodriquez, Bishop McCort

Looking at these probable lineups for each team, we could see 16 nationally ranked wrestlers and three #1s compete in this dual! Faith Christian Academy seems to have the advantage in both the lightweights and the upper weights with many of their heavy hitters manning those positions while Bishop McCort has their big guns in the middleweights. As we all know, bonus points and the prevention of bonus points are sort of the name of the game when it comes to high school dual meets, and both these teams are loaded with wrestlers who go out and put up big points. We have recently seen Joe Bachmann and Gauge Botero flip weight classes in the last month. Could they switch again for this dual? You can’t rule out possible lineup shifting for Bishop McCort either as we saw earlier in the season they hinted at possibly dropping both Jax Forrest and Sam Herring in the dual against Wyoming Seminary before ultimately opting out of it close to the dual. This could help them shift #14 Jackson Butler into the lineup while bumping up Bassett, Magro, and Miller which could be their best option to win this dual. These coaching staffs are two of the best in the country for a reason and will have all of their options weighed and will have their teams ready to go for this one. Also, don’t count out upsets happening in this matchup as I mentioned previously it was Faith Christian who came up with two huge ones in last year's final to widen the gap on Bishop McCort. The entire high school season has been leading up to this dual and you won’t want to miss it if it goes down on Saturday at 3 pm ET!

Tune in LIVE on FloWrestling for all of this and the rest of the action this weekend at the 2025 PIAA Team Wrestling State Championships!