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Williamsport's wrestling team is loaded, to say the least.
Coming off a fourth-place finish in states last year, the Millionaires entered the 2021-22 season ranked No. 6 among all Class AAA dual teams in Pennsylvania by PA Power Wrestling -- the highest ranking the program has ever received by the outlet.
With a roster of four returning state qualifiers and a starting lineup primarily composed of decorated upperclassmen, the ceiling is high for Williamsport. The Millionaires know it, too.
"I feel a little disappointed we weren't higher, especially taking fourth (in states) last year," junior Cael Nasdeo said. "But it's respectable, I mean it's exciting we're sixth, but we want to be higher obviously."
Nasdeo was a state runner-up last year and is now the top-ranked 113-pounder in Pennsylvania. The Penn State commit took second place at the Tom Best Memorial Top Hat tournament this past weekend after falling to Northampton's Carson Wagner, who's ranked No. 2 in the state behind Nasdeo.
The final bout at 113 between the two was a rematch of last years' quarterfinal in the PIAA tournament, where Nasdeo came out on top, 3-1. Having made it to the Top Hat final his freshman year, the first half of Nasdeo's varsity career has been fruitful with deep tournament runs.
"I feel like I've got a target on my back, but there's more to be shown and proven," Nasdeo said ahead of his junior campaign.
Williamsport ended the first day of the Top Hat tournament in seventh place with 42.5 points. From there, however, the Millionaires surged through Day 2 and sent three other wrestlers to the finals with Nasdeo.
Two of those wrestlers -- Bucknell commits Braden and Riley Bower -- took the 138 and 145-pound titles to give Williamsport a third-place finish at 175 points. This past weekend marked the first time the school had multiple Top Hat winners since the mid 90s.
A strong start for the Millionaires, they now turn the page to their next challenge in a steep early schedule. With the Top Hat in the books, Williamsport shifts gears toward the King of the Mountain tournament as well as the Powerade before the new year.
"These next couple weeks are very loaded for us," senior Charles Crews said. "We're all going to showcase our talent and all the hard work we put in all season to show we're a great team."
Crews was the fourth wrestler for the Millionaires to reach the finals after defeating Central Mountain's Brayden Blackwell with a fall at 3:23 and earning a 5-1 decision over Central York's Ethan Miller.
In the final bout at 285, Mifflinburg's Emmanuel Ulrich made an escape to break a tie and take a narrow 3-2 win over Crews. With the strongest showing at the Top Hat in over two decades for Williamsport, the Millionaires are hungry to put distance between them and their preseason poll.
"We're very excited, ready to move up in the rankings," Crews said.
Ranked No. 12 in the state at 285, Crews first got into wrestling in seventh grade. Now he's a heavyweight anchor who's been climbing up the ladder since he first stepped on the mat.
"I've been getting better every year since then. I just took fourth at Fargo this summer, so just seeing all the hard work pay off, and see what's going to happen this season, it's going to be very great to see," Crews said.
The only other Class AAA area school with a higher state dual rank than Williamsport is Central Mountain at No. 4. The Wildcats have depth everywhere in their lineup with a strong group of underclassmen.
With two of the top 30 ranked freshmen -- Dalton Perry at No. 1 and Taylor Weaver at No. 29 -- as well as state placewinners Luke Simcox and Derek Keen, on top of returning eight district qualifiers, the Wildcats are stacked at each and every avenue of their program.
King of the Mountain presents the perfect opportunity for both teams to meet each other again right off the heels of a tight finish between the two.
"We've seen a little, we're mostly focused on us. Central Mountain is hot on our list just because we haven't beaten them in a while," Nasdeo said. "We definitely could beat them this year, we have the lineup, we match up well against them. We're just going to keep competing no matter who's in front of us."
The Millionaires were close. The Wildcats finished just 11 points ahead of Williamsport to take second place in the Top Hat tournament.
With the King of the Mountain tournament starting this Friday, the Millionaires will have another crack at Central Mountain at their own gym. But the sights are set higher than just any regular season meet.
"We all have high expectations to do better than we did last year. We want to be state champs," Nasdeo said. "We want our team to be state champs and we'll try our best to be there. That's what we tell ourselves every day in practice. So that's the goal."