Photo for the Mirror by Chris Wechtenheiser Altoona’s Luke Sipes wrestles West Chester Rustin’s A.J. Corp in the quarterfinals on Friday in Hershey.

HERSHEY — It’s been a long four-year journey for Altoona’s Luke Sipes, but he has finally reached the place where he’s wanted to get to in his career.

He’ll be wrestling in the PIAA Class 3A Championship finals today at the Giant Center.

Wrestling his third career semifinal bout, Sipes, dealing with an illness and a tweaked ankle, earned a 15-7 major decision over Oxford Area’s Jon Smith to make the finals.

When it over, Sipes yelled and pumped his fists in celebration. After his hand was raised, he hugged his dad Luke Sr. in the first row of bleachers by his mat.

“This is the third time in the semifinals and I finally broke through,” Sipes said. “It feels really good. I’m really grateful.”

“That’s definitely exciting for the young man,” Altoona coach Joel Gilbert said. “He’s been in the state semis three times now. He got that monkey off of his back and he’s in the state finals tomorrow. I feel ecstatic for him. He could go down as one of the best wrestlers Altoona has ever had.”

Sipes (42-4) will wrestle Quakertown’s three-time medalist and two-time finalist Collin Gaj (43-0), a 19-3 technical fall winner over Bethlehem Catholic’s Charlie Scanlan in the finals.

“Collin is great competitor,” Sipes said, “but I’m really looking forward to that match. I’ve been looking forward to it all year.”

“This is just a great opportunity for Luke to go out and show what he’s done here,” Gilbert said.

Unfortunately, Sipes will be the only Mountain Lion and the only Blair County wrestler in the finals, which are scheduled for 4 p.m. today.

Altoona’s Braiden Weaver suffered a 4-1 loss to Cedar Cliff’s Kavin Muyleart in the semifinals. He’ll wrestle in today’s consolation semifinals. Weaver couldn’t solve Muyleart wrestling on his knees most of the bout, and then Muyleart got a late takedown.

“It was a tough loss,” Gilbert said. “The guy wrestled on one knee for most of the bout. Weaver tried to get him to stand up a few times. It’s tough to adapt to that style sometimes when a guy is on one knee. It’s a learning moment for Weaver.”

Tyrone’s Kyle Scott lost by technical fall, 21-5 in 5:20, to Faith Christian Academy’s two-time state champion Adam Waters in the Class 2A semifinals. Scott will also wrestle in the consolation semifinals.

Sipes, who earned his fourth state medal, dominated West Chester Rustin’s A.J. Corp, 12-1, in the quarterfinals.

“I felt a lot better today than I did yesterday,” Sipes said. “Hopefully by tomorrow I’ll feel real good.”

In the semifinals, Sipes was leading Smith, 5-4, when he took Smith down with 59 seconds left in the second and quickly put him on his back for the rest of the period. He nearly got a pin, but he got four nearfall points and a 12-4 lead.

Smith came back to with five, 12-7, but Sipes nailed a takedown late to secure the major decision.

Weaver moved on to the semifinals with a 7-1 win over Gettysburg’s Will Yordy in the quarterfinals.

“It feels great to be back on the medals stand,” Weaver said. “It’s what I worked all year for. It was heartbreaking last year when I didn’t get to the podium, but this year I made sure of it.

Tyrone’s Kyle Scott reached the semifinals with a 10-2 win over Warrior Run’s Tyler Ulrich in the quarterfinals. Assured of a second state medal, Scott was stopped short of the finals by Faith Christian Academy two-time state champion Adam Waters.

Altoona’s Gavin Ciampoli (139) will wrestle for seventh in his second appearance in Hershey. Teammate Deklan Barr (127) came up a win shy of getting a medal.

Ciampoli started the day with a 7-4 win over Whitehall’s Trokon Kai thanks to a takedown with 28 seconds left and a two-point nearfall with 6 seconds remaining.

The Mountain Lions’ Comeback Kid was losing to Notre Dame-Green Pond’s Gavyn Kelton for most of his blood round bout, but he was being aggressive. Finally, losing 6-5, Ciampoli nailed a takedown with 11 seconds remaining to win, 8-6.

Barr began Friday with a 5-0 victory over Downingtown West’s Chase Sigle to make the blood round. But the Altoona freshman suffered a 6-4 loss to Trinity’s Dom Canali.

Weaver was in control from the start against Yordy. It started with Weaver taking Yordy down in the first 3 seconds of the bout.

“Really?” a surprised Weaver asked. “I don’t know. As soon as the whistle blows, my head goes on auto pilot and just attack, attack, attack.”

They went scoreless through the first and second periods, but Weaver escaped 5 seconds into the third and took Yordy down 20 seconds later for a 7-0 lead. Yordy escaped with 6 seconds left to set the final score.

“The guy was stalling on bottom,” said Weaver, who was called for stalling in the first period. “I still got the win. I think I wrestled okay. I think I should have let him up and taken him down again, but I’m proud of it.”

“Weaver looked good out there also,” Gilbert said. “That guy laid flat for about a period-and-a-half, but Weaver is tough on top. I don’t blame the kid. If Weaver gets your wrist, he’ll tilt you all over the mat.”

Sipes took control in the first period against Corp with a takedown. After Corp escaped, he was penalized a point when he poked Sipes in the eye two different times that forced Sipes to take two recovery timeouts.

He did it a third time in the third period, but the official called for an injury timeout for Sipes instead of recovery time.

“He was pretty with hand fighting just like me,” Sipes said. “Hopefully he didn’t mean to, but it was pretty malicious by the end of the match.”

Sipes broke it open in the second period, scoring a reversal and tilting Corp for three nearfall points and a 9-1 lead. Sipes finished off the scoring with a takedown with 7 seconds left in the bout.

“With all the circumstances, I thought I followed my gameplan perfectly,” Sipes said. “I stayed in good position, was opportunistic when that game made a mistake and I rode him tough on top. I’m pretty happy with that performance.”

“He’s fighting that flu right now,” Gilbert said, “but he went out and did what he had to do. A major decision when you’re not feeling well is a great outing if you ask me.”

In the first period of the quarterfinals, Ulrich looked like he wanted to go upper body with Scott, who his quite proficient in that position.

Scott nailed a takedown with a lift and drop to the mat with 36 seconds left in the first. He held a 3-1 lead going into the third, but he turned it up a notch, escaping quickly and scoring a takedown to go up 7-1. Ulrich escaped, but Scott took him down with 2 seconds left to get the major decision.

Northern Bedford’s Wyatt Clouse (127) and Central Cambria senior Jake Wilson (145) were eliminated in the second round of Class 2A consolations to finish 1-2 in the tournament.

Clouse (32-10) was pinned by Penns Valley’s Erik Carlile, while Wilson (41-10) lost to Bishop McDevitt’s Easton Comp, 4-1