Emilio Albanese might have been overlooked heading into the PIAA wrestling tournament, but he made sure that didn’t affect his performance in Hershey last weekend.

Albanese worked his way from the preliminary round to the medal stand, finishing fourth at 107-pounds in his first dance at the Giant Center.

The freshman sensation reached the semifinals before settling for fourth-place, but it didn’t detract from a sterling performance that he’ll likely on build upon.

“My expectations were to get high on the podium coming into the tournament,” said Albanese. “It’s pretty important for me to medal. I’ve been training all offseason and during the season for this, so it’s been a goal of mine.”

Albanese started in the preliminary round and registered a 7-5 decision over Upper Dublin’s Dominick Powell to spark his run to the semis, which was followed by a 16-4 major decision over Nicholas McGarrity of Peters Township and an 8-3 decision over Thunder Beard of Central Dauphin in the quarters.

Getting an extra match in the preliminaries helped Albanese relieve stress that comes with being on the Giant Center floor for the first time.

“It helped me because it got my nerves out,” he said. “After my first match I just felt more confident. My coaches always tell me I’m right there with the other top guys. My confidence kept rising after my first match.”

Albanese fell to eventual state champion Dominick Morrison of Hatboro-Horsham 4-1 in the semifinals, but then rebounded with a 7-3 victory over McGarrity in the consolation round to reach third-place match.

He dropped an 8-1 decision to Alex Diaz of Council Rock North to end his run in Hershey this time around.

Emmaus head coach Jim Best knew he could get this type of run out of his rookie wrestler and was pleased to see his work pay off.

“He’s really stepped it up to another level in this tournament,” said Best. “We’ve been telling him the past three weeks that he was state championship material and I think now that he’s in this tournament and see’s what he can do, he’s got to believe that internally in his mind.

“He’s a super-talented wrestler and it’s just a matter of keeping his pace high and staying on his offense. I think some coaches tried to counter that the past couple of weeks at districts and regionals and now it’s our turn as coaches to counter those moves, so we can have him performing at his best.”

And the best is still to come for Albanese, who should enter next year with even more confidence from how he closed out his freshman campaign.

“It really comes down to pushing myself,” said Albanese. “The losses are what makes you better. I’m always trying to do better, no matter what.”