Last season, Zephyr wrestler Wilmont Kai split a pair of postseason semifinal matches at districts and regionals with Emmaus’ Emilio Albanese. On Saturday the two faced off with the District XI AAA 114 pound title at stake.

After a scoreless first period, Kai took a 1-0 lead by escaping after choosing bottom in the second. He went up 2-0 in the third period when Albanese illegally grabbed his singlet. That second point proved to be the difference as the junior claimed Whitehall’s first individual district wrestling title since Matt Bonshak in 2012.

“It feels great. I know the job’s not done because next week’s the week that really matters. Just gotta get back to the practice room this week and work harder. This was one of my first great matches of the year and I won which gives me a lot of confidence,” extolled the recently-minted champion.

The win sets up Kai to reach another hallowed wrestling milestone in his first match at regionals this week. He is currently 1 win away from 100 varsity wins in his Whitehall career.

Wilmont will be joined at this week’s regional tournament by Kade Pascoe and Trokon Kai.

They both reached the semifinals before losing to the eventual district champions at their weights, Pascoe to Nicholas Salamone of Easton and Kai to the OW from Nazareth, Tahir Parkins.

Pascoe beat Emmaus’ Teagan Caciolo 3-2 to punch his ticket to regionals and then followed that up by pinning Nazareth’s Remy Trach to take third at 121.

The elder Kai brother downed Xyler Sallit of Emmaus 7-1 to advance to the consolation final. He finished fourth after falling to Easton’s Chris Kelly 4-0.

James Hopkins fell just short of regional qualifying. He lost a tough 5-4 match to Easton’s Shae Linegar in the consolation semis. He then dropped an 8-2 decision to Bradley Renninger of Blue Mountain to finish sixth.

Head coach Tim Cunningham remarked on their performances, “They were in tough weights. They had to out-wrestle themselves. I mean, those guys wrestled a great tournament. They upset some tough kids. Overall, we had a bunch of guys beating kids that they got dominated by during the season. We’re very proud of that as a staff. Not just the guys who are placing, but the guys who came here to wrestle.”