WEST LAWN - Though Tri-Valley's Sammy Hepler, North Schuylkill's Auston Hummel and Pine Grove's Ryan Martin lost in the finals of the Southeast Regional Class AA Wrestling Tournament, their seasons aren't over.
The silver lining is that not only do they advance to the PIAA Wrestling Championships on March 6-8 at the Giant Center in Hershey, but they also go in as regional runners-up. As such, they'll be positioned away from powerhouse regional champions in the first round. That includes the guys who defeated them Saturday night at Wilson High School.
With four champions and four runners-up, Bethlehem Catholic won the team title with 216 points. Boiling Springs finished second with 123, followed by Tri-Valley (93), Bermudian Springs (87) and Hanover (63.5). North Schuylkill finished sixth; Panther Valley took eighth; and Hamburg placed 10th.
In the finals, the common theme for Hepler, Hummel and Martin was that they couldn't get their offense going and fell behind early.
In the opening bout of the finals, the 106-pound Hepler struggled to score in a 10-4 loss to District 3 champion John Pipa (38-9) of Bishop McDevitt. Hepler did most of the attacking from neutral, but Pipa countered Hepler's
shots and scored three takedowns. The first one led to three back points that gave him a 5-0 lead.
"I got caught in the five-point move right at the beginning,'' Hepler said. "It's hard to come back from that, and I couldn't finish any of my shots. So I have to work on that this week.''
Hepler (30-5) earned a reversal in the third period but couldn't do enough to turn Pipa to his back. Still, Hepler's got a District 11 gold medal, a Southeast Regional silver and a 6-1 record so far this postseason.
"It's amazing what I accomplished this season. I just have to get on the medals stand,'' Hepler said. "Keep building momentum and confidence as I go. Winning big matches has my confidence going up and up.''
Like Hepler, Hummel (38-3) got caught in a five-point move in the first period and couldn't recover in a 6-3 loss to Bethlehem Catholic's Nick Cortopassi (33-5). Hummel, who beat Cortopassi 3-1 in last week's 170-pound District 11 final, had a reversal and escape but couldn't get anything going on his feet.
Still, Hummel earned his second straight trip to states and this time gets to go with younger brother Alek, who placed third at 195; and teammate Nate Gadinski, who finished fourth at 285.
"I just made one mistake, letting him take me down and get back points with the dump,'' Auston Hummel said. "I came in with the same attitude, same everything. I wanted to beat him, but he came out on top.''
For whatever reason, Bethlehem Catholic 220-pounder Andrew Dunn is a bad matchup for Martin. And for the second straight week, Dunn (38-4) pinned Martin in the tournament finals, this time scoring a quick takedown and finishing Martin (41-4) in 1:09.
"I'm pretty happy because it's the regional tournament and there are a lot of tough wrestlers here,'' Martin said. "Winning my first three matches and being in the finals is pretty big for Pine Grove. It hasn't happened in a while.
"Can't wait to go to Hershey.''