It’s not the first time Jacob Lizak has won a Northeast Regional AAA wrestling title, but last weekend’s gold medal at Liberty’s Memorial Gymnasium might have been one of the most important medals he’s earned in his four years at Parkland.

Lizak (35-9) took down Bethlehem Catholic’s Joey Gould 5-3 in the 132-pound regional championship last weekend, making him the lone Trojan to stand atop the podium from regionals.

Parkland advanced four wrestlers to this week’s PIAA championships and Lizak is certainly marching in with the most confidence of the group.

“Everything feels like it’s coming together right now,” said Lizak. “This is definitely a big confidence builder and shows that I can beat the best guys in the state.”

The regional tournament was a different story from districts, where Gould pinned Lizak in 3:13 during the semifinals, forcing him to settle for third place.

However, gaining some revenge on Gould, as well as winning his second regional championship a week before his final high school wrestling tournament bodes well for the Parkland senior when the state wrestling tournament starts Thursday afternoon at the Giant Center.

“Jacob works really hard and wrestling can be a cruel sport at times,” said Parkland head coach Ryan Nunamaker. “He’s had a run of bad luck in the finals and semis over the past year, but he battled through this tournament and came back and beat Gould. I think anytime you enter the state tournament as a regional champion, your confidence has to be high.

“Confidence is such an important part of the process at this level, because everyone has the physical tools, but it comes down to which guy is going to compete to win and I think this will help him.”

Joining Lizak in Hershey will be Nick Dolak (fourth at 113), Andrew Mastrangelo (fourth at 126) and Nate Feyrer (third at 220).

One Trojan that surprisingly fell short of reaching the PIAA tournament was district finalist Frank Guida, who got pinned by Edwin Morales of Mariana Bracetti Academy in the quarterfinals in 3:23, pushing him into the consolation bracket.

Guida would lose his second consolation bout to cap Parkland’s qualifiers to four.

With Lizak leading the charge at regionals, he hopes he can do the same at states and follow in the footsteps of his older brother, Ethan, who was a two-time state champion for the Trojans.

“I’m looking to win it this year,” Lizak said. “I didn’t place out in Hershey last year and I felt pretty bad about it, so this is a chance to rewrite some of that from a year ago.”