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South’s Kline earned D4 spot

Billy Kline didn’t want his season put in a do-or-die situation. He knew he could extend his final year of high school wrestling with one win in the semifinals of last weekend’s District 4 Central Sectional tournament.

So he put everything he had into that 145-pound matchup with Montoursville’s Charlie Steinbacher. He won that matchup, 4-2, and earned his spot in the final. But more importantly, he earned his spot at this week’s District 4 tournament at Williamsport.

For the South Williamsport senior, that was a weight off his shoulders. He’s wrestled too well this year to have his season end in the first week of the postseason.

“I really wanted to get it over with right there,” Kline said after his second-place finish in at 145 pounds. “My confidence is as high as it can be. Seeing how I wrestled here, I’m going to take it with me to districts.”

Kline’s run through the 145-pound bracket last week shouldn’t have been much of a surprise. He’s been posting positive result after positive result for the past six weeks, not to mention he was the No. 2 seed in the tournament behind only Muncy’s Coleman Good, who defeated Kline in the finals.

His improvement over his final season has been all about his mentality. First, it’s confidence in himself. Confidence in his ability and his conditioning. Then, it’s all about his confidence to compete.

Consider that Kline looks at his turning point of the season being a 10-point loss to Southern Columbia state runner-up Todd Lane. It was because of those six minutes Kline is confident he can compete in any match. A year ago when he wrestled Lane, he didn’t even make it to the second period. So to go a full six minutes with the Tigers’ senior was a turning point.

“As soon as he came off the mat we were on him. We were proud of the effort and how he wrestled, but he had to keep improving,” South Williamsport coach Eric Gerber said. “He’s a self-motivated individual. He’s in great shape and he works hard every day.”

Working hard every day includes breaking down film of the matches he’s both lost and won. In the bouts he’s already won, he’s looking for areas where he can widen the gap against those opponents. In the matches he’s lost, he’s looking for ways to close the gap, much like he did against Lane.

It’s what Gerber has come to expect of Kline. With the work he’s put in over his three years on the varsity team, this kind of performance was a long-time coming.

And since the turn of the new year, Kline has put together the combination of ability with the belief he can compete. It’s what helped him top Montgomery’s Trevor Kennedy, 5-2, in the quarterfinals before beating Steinbacher, 4-2, in the semifinals. It’s all what led to him securing his spot at districts this weekend.

“Last year that confidence wasn’t there,” said Kline, who is 17-10 this year. “It’s all in my head. I have to believe I can go out and win.”

“We talk about the mental aspect of this sport and the belief in yourself and giving the best effort all the time,” Gerber said. “It’s all about focusing on the things you can control when you’re on the mat. He puts a ton of time in and he’s going after what he wants. We’re extremely excited for him.”

Kline was one of two South Williamsport wrestlers to qualify for the district tournament this weekend. Alex Snyder finished fourth at 132 pounds for the Mounties.

It was a quality day for a program which has struggled with its numbers in recent years and has just one state placewinner — Nate Jones in 2015 — in the last 10 years. And the improvement Kline has shown over three years to go from two wins to 11 last year to 17 this year is proof that what is happening in the program is working.

Kline could have rightfully been ecstatic at his day of wrestling Saturday, just happy to be in the district tournament and leaving it at that. Instead, with a silver medal hanging around his neck, he began talking about how he can still get better and there’s still work to do.

“He’s constantly wanting to learn. He’s a great listener and plugs in to what you’re asking him to do,” Gerber said. “He would have been ready to go Sunday if we had a workout. He would have been in there. But having time to rest and relax at this point of the season is important.”

The task surely isn’t going to get any easier this week for Kline. The 145-pound weight class at the District 4 tournament is one of the toughest in the field.

Lane is the top seed with returning state qualifier Gage Cannavino from Athens the No. 2 seed. Returning state qualifier Logan Bennett of Milton is on the same side of the bracket as Kline, as is Good. In all, there are five state-ranked wrestlers in the weight class and Kline will have to find a way to beat at least one of them to qualify for next week’s regional tournament.

But he has confidence in his ability and his strategy. He wants to get on his opponents from the opening whistle and take matches deep into the third period where his conditioning can play a factor. And if he does all that, it’s all he can ask.

“If I come wrestling as soon as the whistle blows, I think I can make it out,” Kline said. “This is really exciting, especially after not getting to districts the last two years.”

“At this point, there’s nothing for him to hold back,” Gerber said. “They have the attitude of they have nothing to lose. They need to control what they can control and if you wrestle to the best of their ability, then you can be proud of the effort you put in. And hopefully they’ll achieve the accomplishment of wrestling again next week.”

District 4 Class AA Tournament Predictions

106: 1, Jacob Blair, Muncy; 2, Matty Coller, Line Mountain; 3, Sheldon Seymour, Troy; 4, Luke Gorg, Hughesville; 5, Aidan Steininger, Midd-West; 6, Vayle-Rae Baker, Benton.

113: 1, Jaret Lane, Southern Columbia; 2, Wyatt Lutz, Montoursville; 3, A.J. Burkhart, Athens; 4, Colby Bronzburg, Bloomsburg; 5, Mario Barberio, Muncy; 6, Keefer Goodspeed, Warrior Run.

120: 1, Cole Rhone, Benton; 2, Cole Hauck, Line Mountain; 3, Shane Casey, Southern Columbia; 4, Trey Heiss, Warrior Run; 5, Chris Horton, Athens; 6, Lucas Drick, Montgomery.

126: 1, Brock Horton, Athens; 2, Jeremy Hanford, Warrior Run; 3, Devin Pietkiewicz, Shamokin; 4, Joe Klock, Benton; 5, Brian Earlston, Line Mountain; 6, Matt Milbrand, Bloomsburg.

132: 1, Brian Courtney, Athens; 2, Collin Klinger, Line Mountain; 3, Colton Babcock, Benton; 4, D.J. Knolles, Towanda; 5, Trevor Bingaman, Mifflinburg; 6, Dylan Kolenda, Warrior Run.

138: 1, Noah Stamm, Milton; 2, Mike Stuart, Benton; 3, Luke Yonkin, Wyalusing; 4, Noah Ettinger, Midd-West; 5, Braden Stahlnecker, Hughesville; 6, Riley Walker, North Penn-Liberty.

145: 1, Todd Lane, Southern Columbia; 2, Gage Cannavino, Athens; 3, Logan Bennett, Milton; 4, Coleman Good, Muncy; 5, Kenny Boyer, Line Mountain; 6, Keegan Kisner, Towanda.

152: 1, Josh Haley, Wyalusing; 2, Mitch Milbrand, Bloomsburg; 3, Kaidon Winters, Athens; 4, Cade Linn, Southern Columbia; 5, Timmy Ward, Canton; Tyler Stotzfus, Mifflinburg.

160: 1, Creighton Edsell, Wyalusing; 2, Kyle Bennett, Montoursville; 3, Jacob Carpenter, Shamokin; 4, Noah Gush, Muncy; 5, Cal Haladay, Southern Columbia; 6, Matt Ingrassia, Sayre.

170: 1, Gaige Garcia, Southern Columbia; 2, Nate Bradley, Athens; 3, Trey Delbaugh, Lewisburg; 4, Ed Mapes, Wyalusing; 5, Mike Kustanbauter, Muncy; 6, Hunter O’Connor, Jersey Shore.

182: 1, Andrew Shedleski, Lewisburg; 2, Zach Zimmerman, Troy; 3, Cameron Snook, Midd-West; 4, Ryan Kipp, Wyalusing; 5, Anthony Scicchitano, Southern Columbia; 6, Conner Kepner, Hughesville.

195: 1, Gavin Hoffman, Montoursville; 2, Mike Wilcox, Wyalusing; 3, Luke Walter, Mifflinburg; 4, Ethan Long, Line Mountain; 5, Seth Johnson, Towanda; 6, Dakotah Snyder, Lewisburg.

220: 1, Hunter Poust, Muncy; 2, Kaleb Smith, Wellsboro; 3, Jarrett Walters, Danville; 4, Max Mason, Jersey Shore; 5, Mike Martin, Montoursville; 6, Cody Tunnicliff, Wyalusing.

285: 1, Josh Dauberman, Hughesville; 2, Dawson Otis, Wyalusing; 3, Garrett Kieffer, Line Mountain; 4, Hunter Bohannon, Warrior Run; 5, Justin Kriner, North Penn-Liberty; 6, Sam Rishel, Mifflinburg.

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