Jeannette High School wrestling coach Matt Lebe is hoping a long layoff will not hurt the Jayhawks in Saturday's Section 2-AA tournament, which will take place at Charleroi Area High School.

"We haven't had a match since Jan. 25," said Lebe, a 2001 Jeannette graduate in his first season as head coach. "We've had four weeks of nothing but practice. If it was up to me, we would have had a match or two, or maybe a tournament scheduled later.

"When I was hired, the schedule was already set. After the season, I plan to talk with my athletic director about making a couple changes to the schedule [for next season]."

Lebe has 18 wrestlers who wrestled at the varsity level this year, but will only field a seven-man lineup at the section tournament.

"We had some kids who helped us during the dual-meet season, but did not want to participate in the individual tournaments," Lebe said.

Jeannette's condensed lineup includes three returning Section 2-AA champions, Ian Thom, Michael DePalma and Anthony Deni.

Thom won the 103-pound section crown last year, but is now competing at 125. DePalma has moved to 130 after winning a section title and placing fourth in the WPIAL at 125 last season. Deni is back to defend the 215-pound title he won last year.

"Michael considered dropping to 125, but it was too much weight for him to cut," Lebe said. "Ian struggled early in the season after moving up three weight classes, but is now feeling comfortable at 125."

Yough set a school record last year with six place-winners at the Section 2-AA tournament. Coach Jeremy Zufall is expecting the Cougars to surpass that total this year.

"I'd like to double the record," Zufall said. "I'd like to take as many as 11 or 12 kids to the WPIAL tournament.

"It will not be easy, but we have the talent required to qualify that many kids."

Yough has two returning finalists: Caleb Porter and Brian Delaney. Porter is a two-time section finalist and one-time champion who returns at 119 for the third consecutive year. Delaney is back at 145 after finishing second last year.

"Caleb wrestled at 125 most of the season, but recently dropped to 119," Zufall said. "He will be a force at 119. He has a legitimate shot of qualifying for the PIAA tournament. Brian has been in a funk this year, but he has been wrestling well the past couple weeks."

Zufall is also expecting big things from Matt Gross at 171 pounds.

"Matt missed last year's section tournament with an injury," Zufall said. "He's healthy this year and is wrestling well."

Other returning champions in Section 2-AA are Bentworth's August Mizia, Charleroi's Tom Thorpe and Jefferson-Morgan's Zach Doman. Mizia won at 140 and has since stepped up to 152. Thorpe is the defending champ at 160. Doman is the defending heavyweight champion.

It's not easy competing in a section that has the WPIAL's top two Class AA teams.

Burrell and Shady Side Academy combined to qualify 22 wrestlers for the WPIAL Class AA tournament last year. That left only 34 berths to be divided among the remaining eight teams in Section 3-AA.

"We only get four qualifers in each weight class and two are taken by Burrell and Shady Side Academy in most of the weight classes," Mars Area coach Don Cooley said. "That leaves only two berths for the rest of the teams. It's not easy, but it never is when you get to the postseason tournaments."

In Section 3-AA, nine champions return including a trio of three-time winners, Shady Side Academy's Frank Martellotti and Matthew Cunningham, and Burrell's Nolan Greenwald. Martellotti, a three-time PIAA place-winner and one-time champion, is entered at 130. Cunningham, a three-time WPIAL champ and one-time PIAA runner-up, is competing at 171.

Burrell's Greenwald is entered at 160.

"Nolan has done a great job," Burrell coach Ryan Yates said. "He now has a chance to become a four-time section champion."

Burrell, which won the WPIAL team championship last week for the fourth year in a row, has a pair of two-time section champs returning in Travis McKillop and Brian Beattie.

Both are also returning PIAA place-winners from last year.

McKillop has moved up from 135 to 152. Beattie is back at 215 with hopes of claiming his third title. Beattie is ranked No. 1 for his weight class in Class AA.

Their teammate, Jeremy Landowski, is the defending champion at 130.

"We are entering a full lineup," Yates said. "We're hoping to have at least 10 kids qualify."

In addition to the aforementioned Burrell wrestlers, the Buccaneers will also send the Makara brothers, Chuck and Dave.

Dave Makara (29-5) is ranked No. 1 at 125 pounds by the Post-Gazette.

Shady Side Academy has four returning champions, including Martellotti and Cunningham along with Geoff Alexander and Matt Tadich.

The only other returning champion in Section 3-AA is Valley's Charles Massey, who won at 171 last year. He returns at the same weight.

He'll be joined by Vikings teammate Kyle Dudley (22-1), the top-ranked Class AA wrestler at 189 pounds.

Mike White's "High School Sports Edition" videos are featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.