Jonah Niesenbaum is confident he can wrestle against anyone, even on the national scene. And now maybe a few others are starting to believe as well.

Niesenbaum is 3-0 in dual meets this season. His biggest victory thus far came against Wilson’s Kolby Flank, last year’s District 11 Class 2A champion.

In terms of a national scale, Niesenbaum went 3-2 at the Super 32 wrestling tournament held back in October. One of his losses at 220 pounds was a hard-fought 3-1 decision against Oklahoma’s Konnor Doucet, who is ranked third in the country.

“I am wrestling at a high level, but there is still a lot to improve upon,” Nisenbaum said. “I defeated last year’s district champion in Kolby Flank, however, that match was far from perfect. I feel I should have won that match by a lot more.”

Niesenbaum was also the PA Power Surge champion.

But most recently, Niesenbaum was one of three Falcons to pick up wins against Catasauqua. Despite the 58-15 loss, which was aided by eight forfeits and an automatic 48 points, the Falcons are progressing in the right direction.

“We are one year closer to filling up the lineup,” head coach Juan Garcia said. “We went from two wrestlers last year to seven this year. Five of those kids are freshmen. Against Catty, Carver Moyer was just coming back from being sick, and Ben Krauss is wrestling a weight class up. But we are looking forward to seeing these kids develop throughout the season.”

Nate Natel pinned Catasauqua’s Benjamin Langsdorf, and then Devin Alder picked up a fall over Dylan Gino for the Falcons last Tuesday. It was both of the grapplers’ first wins of the season.

“Caver Moyer, although taking a loss, wrestled his butt off,” Garcia said. “He was in the hospital over the weekend and refused to miss the match. The kid is all heart.”

Niesenbaum took care of business as well, which most expect him to do on a nightly basis against Colonial League competition. His fall was the Falcons’ third victory of the match when he pinned Zachary Scheirer.

“I’ve had a very busy offseason,” Niesenbaum said. “I went to the Jay Robinson 14-day intensive camp that included 2-3 workouts and practices per day. I am stronger then ever before. My conditioning is very good, and my wrestling is only getting better.”

Despite being in his third year of wrestling, Niesenbaum is gaining plenty of national attention from the wrestling community. He recently made a commitment to wrestle at the Division I level in college.

“I recently committed to Duke University,” Niesenbaum said. “I am looking forward to begin training with them this upcoming summer.”

Salisbury will next take the mat on Saturday in the Jim Thorpe Holiday Tournament.