It wasn't what Lucas Schaf wanted, but it certainly is better than coming away with nothing. The Emmaus wrestler took eighth place at the PIAA Class AAA wrestling championships over the weekend following a 6-4 loss to Josh Ridgway of Norwin.

As with any wrestler in Hershey, the goal is to always come home with hardware, but once you get a taste of the action from the Giant Center, you want more.

In the case of Schaf, you can certainly say he his appetite has grown following his experience last weekend.

"It feels good to come home with a medal, but I'm not satisfied with eighth," Schaf said. "You can say that I peaked at the right time of the year because qualifying for states and medaling is a huge accomplishment. Hopefully, next year I'll be higher on the podium."

After losing by fall in the first period of the quarterfinals to Luke Pletcher of Greater Latrobe, Schaf had to battle his way back through the consolation bracket, beating Bethlehem Catholic's Joey Gould 9-2, but losing to Easton's Evan Fidelibus 3-1 to bounce him into the seventh place bout.

For head coach Jeff Arbushites, watching his junior work through the entire postseason was an enjoyable sight.

"It's a tremendous accomplishment for him," he said. "For a kid that was seeded sixth in a loaded district weight class, to work his way through regionals and now [to states] in kind of a meat grinder fashion and peak at the right time, it was pretty awesome."

Schaf became the first Emmaus wrestler to medal at the PIAA tournament since Cole Brown's runner-up performance at 113-pounds in 2008.

Arbushites just wished senior Thomas Alcaro could have came home with a medal too.

The 195-pounder was bounced in the third round of consolations following a 3-1 defeat to Trey Hartsock of Mifflin County, coming up one victory short of placing.

"He was one round short, but he wrestled his heart out," Arbushites said. "Throughout his entire career, he's had plenty of matches that have impacted the team. He's gone up two weights classes, down two weight classes, basically has done anything we've asked of him. It's disappointing he didn't medal because he certainly deserved to."

Despite that letdown, Arbushites knows the weekend's performance has the program heading in the right direction.

"It's nice to be bringing multiple kids out here and have a state medal winner," he said. "It shows we're going in the right direction."