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By Todd Irwin
sports@altoonamirror.com
Penn Cambria's Trent Hoover won Southwest Regional Class 2A titles as a sophomore and junior, but earning a medal at the PIAA Championships has been just beyond his grasp.
Hoover opened with a 16-3 win last season, but he suffered a broken hand in the win and lost twice on the second day.
"It obviously sucked," Hoover said after collecting his regional silver medal at the Altoona Fieldhouse. "There was a lot of build-up to that. I won a district and regional title. I was feeling really good going down to that tournament.
"I hurt my hand in the first round of the tournament and tried to go and ended up not making the podium again. I think I learned a lot from it - how to deal with adversity."
Coming off a second-place finish at 152 pounds at the regional tournament, Hoover and Penn Cambria coach Todd Niebauer are again aiming to make the medals stand on Saturday at Hershey's Giant Center.
"I don't want to put any pressure on Trent. He's had an illustrious career," Niebauer said. "I know that he has that pressure on himself. I know what it means to him. Do I want to be standing there on Saturday and putting a medal around his neck? Maybe not as much as him, but maybe as much as him.
"I told him last night we're a four-time district finalist and a three-time regional finalist. That's a pretty great career but there's one thing we don't have. We've got to focus on what we can handle moving forward and go from there."
Hoover isn't the only area wrestler who will be looking for their first medal in a return trip. Five of the eight Mirror coverage area qualifiers have wrestled in Hershey before without earning medals.
Tyrone's Braden Ewing (41-3) is making his third state appearance at 285, while 172-pound teammate Kyle Scott (38-6) is making his second trip.
"I want both of these guys to get on the podium," Tyrone coach Quentin Wright said. "That's the goal. They've been working hard. That would be a good sendoff for Braden."
Glendale sophomore Daniel Williams (35-5) is making a second straight appearance at 285.
Huntingdon/Williamsburg 189-pound senior Andrew McMonagle (43-3) was in Hershey last year when he suffered a knee injury in his first-round bout that forced him to forfeit his consolation bouts and get surgery in the offseason.
Northern Bedford seniors Eion Snider (189) and Rece Dibert (215) and Glendale senior George Campbell (172) are all wrestling in Hershey for the first time.
The Class 2A wrestlers begin in their quest for a medal at 9 a.m. in the preliminaries and first round. If they win in the first round, they're done for the day. If they lose, they have to wrestle a consolation bout at 12:45 p.m.
There are some very deep weights in the state tournament, and 152 is no different. Hoover (40-5) opens with Line Mountain's Dalton Schadel (40-14). If he wins that, he gets Grove City's second-seeded Cody Hamilton (42-2), an eighth-placer last year, in the quarterfinals.
If Hoover wins that, he earns a medal for the first time and moves him into the semifinals against possibly Faith Christian Academy's Max Stein (37-7). Miller and Clearfield's Brady Collins are in the other bracket.
"Hey, there are no soft spots in that bracket by any means," Niebauer said. "We've wrestled Schadel at the Bedford tournament, and he's good. He's a sophomore that's probably improving every day, so we've got to wrestle.
"Then our reward for getting a first-round win would be to get a kid who is a returning state placewinner who's beat Watson and Brady Collins, who has beaten us. I want a shot at the couple guys we've lost to, but I'll take a fresh face and something different. We've got to be offensive."
McMonagle seems to be a lock for not only a medal but a candidate to make the championship finals. He opens with Loyalsock's Kaden Rodarmel (35-4), with possible bouts against Clearfield's third-seeded Carter Chamberlain (31-8) and Bishop McDevitt's second-seeded Lucas Lawler (37-5) following.
Bald Eagle Area's Caleb Close (41-2), who has beaten McMonagle in the District 6 and Southwest Regional finals, is the top seed. Southern Columbia's Garrett Garcia (30-0) is the fourth seed.
"It's the toughest tournament in the country," Huntingdon coach Jon Mykut said. "I like to think that (McMonagle and Close) are the two best kids in the state. If they hit in the finals, that would be pretty cool, but you just never know what's going to happen down there.
"If you look past somebody, that's when you're going to be bit. I keep saying it, but he's going to take it one match at a time, go with the flow and wrestle the guy in front of him."