Whitehall’s Wilmont Kai has battled through some injuries, but the junior is optimistic about the rest of the season.

Last season, Kai compiled an overall 39-7 record. He finished third at districts, second at regionals, and seventh at states las season.

In his freshman season, Kai went 32-11 with a fourth place at districts and a fifth at regionals.

This season, Kai is again wrestling well. His impressive previous showings have provided enough incentive.

Head coach Tim Cunningham has served as inspiration.

“I see a lot of success this postseason,” said Kai. “I was struggling with some minor setbacks such as injuries and my mental aspect of some things.

“But after a couple weeks of training hard, some goal-setting and talks with coach Cunningham, I feel everything is going to fall right into place. I know I can put all of my trust into him.”

Cunningham believes Kai can find his path back to Hershey in March.

“He has been working very hard,” stressed Cunningham. “He did everything he could to get to states last season. He is very determined and driven to get back there.”

Along with Kai, Cunningham sees his team’s recent performances at the Beast of the East (38th) and the Bethlehem Holiday Classic (23rd) as springboards for the remainder of the season. The team is also prepping for the District 11 team duals.

“We have shown signs of getting to the next level but not consistently enough,” Cunningham said earlier this month. “We are learning during every competition what it takes and the improvements we need to make in order to compete with the best competition. Some of inexperienced guys are making some major improvements which is nice to see and love seeing wrestlers working hard consistently seeing some success.”

“As we enter the second half of the season, these tough tournaments help us gauge where we are and what we need to do at practice to progress and perform at a higher level. Some of our more experienced wrestlers learned a lot from these tournaments and had time to evaluate their progress. Our coaching staff has also learned what changes we need to make at practice to give our wrestlers the best possible opportunities to perform at a higher level.”