Pittsburgh, Pa. – The Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL) announced its winter sports alignments for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons after the proposals were approved by the WPIAL Board of Directors at their monthly meeting on Tuesday afternoon.
Alignments determine the sections that each school will compete in per their Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) classification. The winter sports that the WPIAL sponsors are basketball (boys’ and girls’), gymnastics, rifle, swimming & diving (boys’ and girls’), and wrestling (boys’ and girls’).
Boys’ basketball will have 133 teams competing in section play across six classifications. Class 6A has two sections of eight teams each, Class 5A has 29 teams competing in four sections, Class 4A has 20 teams competing in three sections, Class 3A has 25 teams competing in four sections, Class 2A has 31 teams competing in four sections, and Class 1A has two sections of six teams each.
Girls’ basketball will have 126 teams competing in section play across six classifications. Class 6A has two sections of six teams each, Class 5A has 28 teams competing in four sections, Class 4A has 23 teams competing in three sections, Class 3A has 22 teams competing in three sections, Class 2A has 25 teams competing in four sections, and Class 1A has two sections of eight teams each.
Gymnastics will have 14 teams competing in section play across two sections, with both divisions having seven teams each.
Rifle will have 16 teams competing in section play across four sections, with all four having four teams each.
Swimming & diving will have 69 boys’ teams and 70 girls’ teams competing in section play across two classifications. Class 3A has four sections and a total of 30 boys’ teams and 30 girls’ teams, while Class 2A has six sections and a total of 39 boys’ teams and 40 girls’ teams. Schools will compete in the WPIAL Swimming & Diving Championships as per their listed classification.
Boys’ wrestling will have 83 teams competing in section play across two classifications. In Class 3A, there are a total of 42 teams competing in nine different sections, and Class 2A will have 41 teams competing in nine different sections. Individual section tournaments will be made up of student-athletes from Section I, Section II, and Section II for the Southern Sectional, Section IV, Section V, and Section VI for the Northern Sectional, and Section VII, Section VIII, and Section IX for the Eastern Sectional.
Full alignments for the 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 school years will be available on the WPIAL website at each sport’s respective sport-specific page underneath the Schedules tab.
Tentative release dates for each sport’s section schedules are listed below:
- Tuesday, June 25: Gymnastics, Wrestling
- Wednesday, June 26: Rifle, Swimming & Diving
- Thursday, July 18: Basketball
About the WPIAL
Founded in 1906, the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL) represents Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) District VII, which is one of the 12 districts governed by the Constitution and By-Laws of the PIAA. The WPIAL represents its member schools by promoting academics, the safety of participants, sportsmanship, citizenship, and lifelong values as the foundation of interscholastic athletics. The league holds championships for 27 different sports, and its member schools are made up of 10 state counties: Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Lawrence, Washington, and Westmoreland.
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