Gabe Ballard and Trey Wagner followed up on their district crowns by taking home regional gold at this past weekend’s PIAA AAA Northeast Regional Tournament at Liberty High School.

Ballard faced his oft-wrestled rival Reef Dillard of Bethlehem Catholic in the final and prevailed for the third time in a close match against the Golden Hawk this season, 3-2. Dillard scored first, a reversal with 23 seconds left in the second period. Ballard escaped just before the buzzer. He then scored a reversal of his own and rode Dillard out over the last, tense 1:40 of the match.

In anticipation of his first trip to varsity states Ballard said, “It feels amazing. I’ve wanted to do this my entire life and now that I have a chance to do it, I just want to go out there and do the best that I can.”

Wagner had an easier time of it in his championship match, dominating Becahi’s Ryder Campbell 8-0. After a scoreless first period, Wagner posted an escape, a takedown, and 3 nearfall points in the second period on the way to the major decision.

“It’s definitely a step up in my confidence. Winning districts is one thing. Winning regionals just feels so much better. I feel like I’m wrestling 10 times better than I was at the beginning of the season. Everything feels like it’s flowing in the right direction,” explained the sophomore who will be making his second trip to states.

Also qualifying for states for the second time is senior Austin Noe. Noe qualified as a freshman in the 2021 COVID year but didn’t get an opportunity to wrestle in Hershey because of the insertion of a one-time super regional round between regionals and states.

Noe had the best tournament of his varsity career over the weekend. On Friday night, he took down previously undefeated Lucas Tirpak of Dallas 6-2 in the quarterfinals. Then he came back from 3-2 down in the third period to take out Cade Campbell of Nazareth 7-3 to reach the regional final.

“I feel like in the past couple of years I haven’t wrestled my best in the postseason. But this year I’m thinking, ‘It’s just a wrestling match.’ They’re not going to define my life. It doesn’t matter if it’s regular season, postseason, district final, regional final, I’m just going to go out there and wrestle the best I can,” said Noe.

Although he lost to Bethlehem Catholic’s Shane McFillin in the final, anyone who has followed Noe closely over the last few years was thrilled to see him return to the state tournament.

Head coach Joe Provini praised his senior, “He’s been training really well the last couple of weeks. We’ve been waiting for those signature wins all year. We’ve known he can do it and he goes and beats an undefeated Tirpak and then he beats Cade Campbell. It’s the best wrestling he’s done all year.”

Heavyweight Gavin Grell is the fourth member of the squad that will be wrestling in Hershey. Grell, who has only been wrestling for three years, made the semifinals but fell to LaSalle’s Andrew Brennan 3-2. He rebounded to take out Parkland’s Michael Gavrilesku 3-2 in the blood round to punch his ticket to states, eventually finishing fourth at regionals.

Colin Marano and Chase Grabfelder both made the semifinals but were both knocked into consolations by the eventual champions at their weight classes. Unfortunately, they both lost in the consolation semis and missed out on the top four spots to qualify for states. Grabfelder’s loss was especially painful as he got dinged for a stalling point with 9 seconds left in regulation and lost in sudden victory.

The four boys will be joined in Hershey by Mylea Lambert as the first-ever PIAA girls wrestling championship will run concurrently with the boys tournament at the Giant Center starting Thursday and ending Saturday. Tickets and schedules are available at piaa.org.