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Winning a state championship at any level of competition is an exciting, fulfilling achievement.
Three wrestlers from the Mirror's core coverage area -- Mason Kephart of Hollidaysburg and Kyle Scott of Tyrone, along with Jordyn Fouse of Northern Bedford -- recently won state titles in wrestling at the Keystone State Championships in Monroeville.
Kephart won the age 8-and-under, 55-pound boys title and Scott captured the age 12-under, 160-pound boys championship, while Fouse won the Junior High Division 115-pound girls championship in the event, which was held April 1-3 at the Monroeville DoubleTree Hotel.
Kephart -- a third-grader in the Hollidaysburg Area School District's Foot of Ten Elementary School near Duncansville, who was competing for the Altoona program in Monroeville -- posted a 5-0 record in the state tournament, including two falls and a 4-1 victory over Owen Swindell of Chestnut Ridge in the championship match.
"I just feel really excited,'' Kephart, 8, said about winning the title. "I worked hard all year, and the hard work paid off.''
Kephart competes in either wrestling competition or practices the entire year around, and is also a member of the Young Guns Wrestling Club.
Former Penn Cambria High School standout Ryan Barr, who is one of Kephart's coaches at Young Guns, said that Kephart is a coachable youngster who willingly accepts instruction.
"First and foremost, he's probably one of the most coachable kids, at his age, that I've ever come across,'' Barr said of Kephart. "He responds really well to instruction, not only at practice, but in match situations as well.
"He's fully invested in what a coach is going to tell him to do,'' Barr added. "Beyond that, he's a physically tough and aggressive kid, and he's got a motor that just doesn't stop. He's a great kid, and winning a state championship in youth wrestling in Pennsylvania is a tremendous accomplishment.''
Scott - a seventh-grader at Tyrone Area Junior High School who qualified to compete in the age 12-under division in Monroeville - won all four of his matches at Monroeville by fall in a dominant performance.
"I was a little bit (surprised), but I knew that I had to do it, and I did it,'' Scott, 12, said of his performance, which was capped off with a 2:29 pin of Allentown Whitehall's James Hopkins in the 160-pound championship match. "My semifinal match was probably the toughest - he knew how to defend what I was doing - but I got really lucky to pin him and move on.
"I'm really happy about it,'' Scott said of his state title. "And I'm excited about the future.''
Scott is a member of both the 4M Wrestling Club in Clearfield County and the Next Level Training center in Philipsburg. His physical size and strength separated him from the competition at states.
"He was a man among boys at that weight class,'' said Scott's Tyrone coach, Jon Wallace. "He pinned all four of his opponents from the top position. He's as strong as an ox, as solid as a brick.''
Both Kephart and Scott won regional competitions at Johnstown in March to qualify for the state event.
Fouse, an eighth-grader at Northern Bedford Area Junior High School, won the Keystone State Championships 115-pound Junior High Division girls title by edging Journie Rodriquez of Lancaster, 1-0 in the championship match.
"I was happy about it, it was a goal of mine for a long time, and I finally accomplished it,'' Fouse, 14, said of the girls state championship that she won via a second-period escape in the title match.
Fouse - who recently joined the Young Guns Club - has been excelling with the Northern Bedford Junior High School boys wrestling program for the past two years. This past winter, Fouse logged a 12-2 record against boys competition, and alsowon the 122-pound individual championship in the Mountain Conference Tournament.
In early February of this year, Fouse won the 117-pound championship in the age 15-under girls division at the World of Wrestling Tulsa National Tournament in Oklahoma.
Andy Sollenberger has been Fouse's junior high coach for the past two years, and also coached her at the elementary school wrestling level.
"She's very dedicated, very intense in her training, and she's actually been very impressive even when competing against the boys,'' Sollenberger said of Fouse. "She wants to dominate (opponents) from start to finish, and she keeps that attitude through her entire matches. She's an amazing young lady.''
Kooper Deputy of Chestnut Ridge also won a state title in the age 12-under, 65-pound boys division.
Other medalists
Second to eighth-place boys finishers earned medals in the Keystone State Championships. Other boys medalists from the Mirror core coverage area in the ages 8-under through 12-under age groups included: 3rdplace--Carter Hardy, Bellwood and Nate Picciotti, Altoona, 8-U, 45 pounds; Keegan Hewit, Tyrone, 10-U, 105. Grayden Paris, Claysburg-Kimmel and Gavin Ciampoli, Tyrone, 12-U, 95. 4thplace--Trenton Farabaugh, Altoona, 8-U, 65. 5thplace--Dominic Picciotti, Altoona, 10-U, 70; Mason VanAllman, Tyrone, 10-U, 90. 6thplace--Brett Cottle, Northern Bedford, 10-U, 105. 7thplace--Ty Matthews, Spring Cove, 10-U, 60; Colton Corley, Spring Cove, 10-U, 90. 8thplace--Haiden Jones, Williamsburg, 8-U, 65; Caleb Plummer, Bellwood, 10-U, 60.
Area boys state medalists in the Junior High Division (grades 7-9) included: 2ndplace--Brock Beach, Northern Bedford, 252; Luke Sipes, Altoona, wrestling for Bishop McCort, 140. 4thplace--Thaide Mickel, Spring Cove, 112. 5thplace--Braiden Weaver, Altoona, 77; Daniel Williams, Glendale, 212. 7thplace--Aaron Bowers, Northern Bedford, 187.
Area girls state medalists for top three finishes included: 3rdplace--Maddi Lewis, Tyrone, 8-U, 57. Chloe White, Northern Bedford, 10-U, 63.