Each year, the main goal of the Northeast Regional wrestling tournament is to qualify for states. By that measure, the Whitehall grapplers had a successful outing last weekend at Liberty as all three of their participants are moving on to compete in Hershey this weekend.

Wilmont Kai got off to a fast start, notching his 100th career win in the opening round with a pin against Jayden Monroe of Roman Catholic in just 54 seconds.

He then blitzed Ayden Blaut of Wallenpaupack and Ryan Marano of Northampton with technical falls to set up a rematch of his district final with Emmaus’ Emilio Albanese.

Albanese struck first with a takedown halfway through the opening period and sat on those three points to claim the title 3-2. Kai rode out Albanese in the second period and scored a pair of escapes.

Head coach Tim Cunningham was diplomatic in his assessment of the title bout, “Albanese wrestled I guess what you would call a smart match. We’ll learn from it. He was close to getting that late takedown there to win it.”

Albanese had been warned for stalling in the first period and viewed through the lens of a Zephyr supporter, was probably fortunate to not have been hit a second time which would have given Kai a tying third point.

Kade Pascoe opened with a quick pin against an overmatched opponent from District 4. He then took out the District 2 champion and second seed Giovanni Lomonaco of Wallenpaupack, coming back from 3-0 down in the first period to win 9-3.

He bounced to the consolation bracket by eventual weight class champion Reef Dillard of Bethlehem Catholic 8-3 in the semifinals. He made sure there was no drama surrounding his state qualification by pinning Drew Leonori of Scranton in the consolation semifinals.

Teagan Caciolo of Emmaus got 4 nearfall points in the third period to win the consi final 5-0 and put Pascoe on the fourth step of the podium.

Senior Trokon Kai did have to sweat out his state berth. He beat the District 4 champion, Louden Spotts of Jersey Shore, in round 1 16-8. He then handled the District 2 runner-up, Luke Evans of Abington Heights, 15-4.

He next faced the top two seeds at 139, Nazareth’s Tahir Parkins, who bumped him from the championship bracket by tech fall and Brady Colville of Delaware Valley who won their consolation semi 7-0.

That set up a “win and move on, lose and go home” fifth-place bout with Evans. Kai took care of business, notching takedowns in the second and third periods to win 7-2 and join Pascoe and his brother in Hershey.

Kai described what it was like to wrestle a match that could have been his last, “I was just focusing on the match at hand right in front of me. I’ve got to wrestle every match like it’s my last, you know? I leave everything out on the mat, make sure I wrestle to the best of my ability because I never know when it’s going to be my last match.”