Northwestern junior Luke Fugazzotto finished his state championship wrestling weekend with a strong performance in the Class 2A bracket, placing seventh at 172 pounds.

Fugazzotto pinned Frazier’s Jackson Angelo in 4:57 to claim his second state medal, and finish the season with a stellar 50-5 record.

“I fell pretty short of what I really wanted to do,” said Fugazzotto, who was second in Hershey a year ago. “It was the end of the long weekend that didn’t really go my way, so I just went out there and wrestled with what I had left.” Fugazzotto built a 3-0 lead with a takedown in the first period before Angelo answered with an escape and a takedown midway through the second to go up 4-3. But Fugazzotto got a reversal and added two back points to regain a 7-4 advantage.

The junior added another reversal in the third period before finishing the match with a pin.

After his third straight trip to states, Fugazzotto now has a career record of 127-21 and is four pins away from 100 for his career. He showed his fight after losing a quarterfinal round match, coming right back and winning his consolation match to secure a spot in the top eight.

“You need to have a good mentality to bounce back from that,” said Fugazzotto. “From a mental state, I think that was good for me.”

Fugazzotto has set an example for those in the program, and shown what it takes to achieve success at the highest level of the sport, something he’s eager to continue his senior year.

“Just to try to step up, be a captain, be a leader, not as much as a coach but someone that can set an example,” he said.

The District 11 champ got his tournament started with a 10-0 win by major decision over Line Mountain’s Kohen Shingara last Thursday at Hershey’s Giant Center.

In Saturday’s quarterfinal match against Brady Collins of Clearfield, Collins scored the first takedown in the final 20 seconds of the first period. Fugazzotto got a reversal with five seconds left to cut the deficit to 3-2.

After an escape early in the second period, Collins used a takedown with 0:28 left to push his advantage to 7-2.

Fugazzotto got an escape early within the first 15 seconds of the third period to make it 7-3. But Collins secured another takedown with 0:27 left to seal the 10-3 win.

Fugazzotto fought back to secure his spot on the podium by pinning Mason Savitz of Corry in 2:40 in his third round consolation bout.

Fugazzotto dropped his fourth round consolation bout to Jayden O’Farrill of Bishop McCort, 10-3.

The pair were scoreless after the first period, but O’Farrill got two takedowns in the second period to build a 7-2 lead, with Fugazzotto getting points on an escape and when O’Farrill was hit with a technical violation.

Fugazzotto got an escape early in the third period but couldn’t close the gap, as O’Farrill got another takedown in the final seconds to finish the match.

Northwestern, which also qualified for the PIAA team tournament this year, also saw freshman Nolan Koehler advance to Hershey.

Koehler, who was fifth at this year’s regional tournament, suffered a 10-4 loss to Burrell’s Calio Zanella in his 152-pound preliminary match, and dropped a 17-3 major decision to Line Mountain’s Dalton Schadel in his first round consolation match.

The freshman ends his season with a 30-19 record.

“I was happy with Nolan for competing hard today,” said Tiger head coach Joe Killar. “Even though he didn’t win either of his matches, he was perfectly capable of winning his first one, and it will be a good experience for next year, which I’m sure he’ll be on the podium soon enough.”

District 11 was well represented in the finals Saturday. In Class 3A, Whitehall’s Willmont Kai (114), Easton’s Nicholas Salamone (121), Bethlehem Catholic’s Keanu Dillard (127) and Nazareth’s Tahir Parkins (139) all claimed titles. In the girls tournament, Palisades’ Savannah Witt (118) and Easton’s Aubre Krazer (130) earned gold. Faith Christian Academy, coached by Northwestern graduate Ben Clymer, won the 2A team title with 232.5 points ahead of Bishop McCort (218.5). Bethlehem Catholic won the 3A team title with 88 points to top Thomas Jefferson (76) and Nazareth (72.5).