“I started wrestling back in the eighth grade and people were talking about going to states and I was like, ‘I’ll never be there. I’m not good enough for that.’ And now being there next week is going to be a surreal experience,” explained Whitehall state-qualifier Melquan Warren as he iced his injuries following a rugged weekend at the PIAA AAA Northeast Regional tournament.

Warren’s path to Hershey went through the 189-pound consolation bracket after a tough, 11-7 loss to Parkland’s Alex Neely in the quarterfinals. Warren wrestled his way to the blood round on the strength of a pin and a 9-4 decision and awaited the loser of the semifinal match between Wayne McIntyre of ES North and Bryce Molinaro of Hazelton.

Molinaro was injured in that match leaving his ability to compete in doubt. Warren described the scene - “I saw him getting treatment in the trainers’ room, so that’s when I realized I was going to states. It felt cheap in a way getting there like that, but I think this last match I wrestled proved that I belonged at states.”

Warren came back from 3-0 down to beat Neely in 5-3 in sudden victory to take third place.

Zephyr head coach Tim Cunningham praised his junior.

“Very proud. Very proud,” Cunningham said. “He got beat last night and was a little down on himself. Told him to have a short memory. He works extra hard. You don’t have to ask him to work hard. He asks me, ‘Hey, what can we do today?’ He does all the little things to make up for not wrestling in the first 7 grades.”

Last week’s district runner-up at 132, Tyler Cunningham, was in obvious physical distress as he tried to advance through the consolation bracket toward a state berth in his senior season. He bowed out of the tournament one step short of the blood round.

Cunningham addressed his condition.

“I sprained my ankle two weeks before districts and I have two rib occlusions in my upper ribs, or like broken ribs that I broke in semifinals last week,” he said. “It would have meant a whole lot to me to bring my parents and my family (to states). It’s just a heartbreaking moment that it ended like this.”

Johnny Colon’s gutsiness in wrestling through injury in districts was well-chronicled. He made it to the blood round at 126, but ran into Gunnar Myers of Wallenpaupack, a 5th place state medalist last year and suffered a pin. As he had the week before, he found himself in the 5th place bout against Keegan Demarest of PM East. Demarest came out on top and Colon finished in the sixth spot.

The state tournament can be streamed on Flowrestling.com ($). There is also the ability to see live scoring on the site for free.