So, when the two teams met up once again in the third-place match, some in attendance may have been expecting another close dual down to the final match. But Montgomery had other plans.

In the third-place match, Montgomery wrestled aggressive and never looked back, defeating the Wildcats in their second meeting of the day, 40-25, to take home a third-place title and secure a spot in the PIAA Class AA team tournament for the second time in three years.

“The kids were excited. They were up for the match, I think that was a big part of knowing what’s on the line. Like it’s one to be able to tell them, but when it’s actually there, you win you go, if you lose you don’t. The kids got up for it,” Montgomery coach Denny Harer said. “We lost the flip that time, so we weren’t able to get the same matchups we got the first time.”

Montgomery won the first three matches in the third-place final, led by Brandt Harer’s dominant 19-second fall at 139 pounds over Seth Hartman. Max Furman III defeated Lane Kenamond by decision, 1-0, before Cameron Woltz pinned Wesley Smith in 2:44 at 152 and, just like that, Montgomery was up 15-0.

RALPH WILSON/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Montgomery's Porter Hall wrestles at 127 pounds against Line Mountain's Bradyn Schadel in the District 4 Class AA consolations.

Mifflinburg won at 160 by forfeit for six points, but Montgomery proceeded to win back-to-back matches after that. Raiden Felix secured a major decision win at 172, 19-11, over Cyrus Douty before Coy Bryson defeated Landon Moser by tech fall, 19-4, 3:41 to put the Red Raiders ahead, 25-6.

Montgomery ended the third-place match with three tech fall victories and three pinfall wins, giving Montgomery 33 points alone in those six contests.

“We preach about it all the time: keep scoring points,” Harer said. “Don’t worry what the score is, just keep scoring points and our guys buy into that. They did a good job with it.

“It’s great to see, that’s what we strive for,” Harer added. “We’re young, I only have one senior on the team. Everybody’s back (next year). It’s very exciting, very exciting times right now to be a Red Raider.”

Mifflinburg won the final three bouts at 121, 127 and 133, but it was too little too late against the Red Raiders who set the tone early and were aggressive from start to finish.

RALPH WILSON/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Montgomery's Ethan Hugar wrestles at 285 pounds against Line Mountain's Jackson Kauwell in the District 4 Class AA Duals consolations.

“It’s time to be gritty. We bust our butt all season long and we talk about grit and these are the type of situations where you got to be gritty, and our kids were gritty,” Harer said of what he told his team when they fell into the consolation bracket. “We had a great match and were very gritty.”

For Harer, he’s glad that the Red Raiders are back in the state tournament for the second time in the last three years. Montgomery was at the state tournament in 2023.

“It’s a good day. Things didn’t go the way we wanted in some of the matches, but our guys wrestled well. We wrestled really well, I think if I could change some things I’d have bumped some stuff in the semifinal match (vs. Hughesville), Harer said. “I’d have bumped Brandt up, I think that would have made a difference, but we decided to go straight up and that’s how things happened.”

In the semifinals, Montgomery lost to rival Hughesville, 31-29, in a tight dual. Montgomery held an early 11-3 lead before the Spartans tied it at 11-11 when Keagan Smitih had a tech fall win over Cameron Woltz at 152, 22-6, 4:35. Hughesville secured a fast 11 points in the next two bouts thanks to a tech fall by Mason Mordan at 160 over Raiden Felix and a forfeit win at 172 by Conor Knight to lead 22-11. Coy Bryson earned a tech fall at 189 to cut the deficit to 22-17 but Luke Stutzman answered back at 215 with a pin in 1:35 for a 28-17 lead thanks to securing six points.

Colton Woolever won by decision at 285 to go ahead 31-17 with just three bouts remaining as the Sparatns held a 14-point lead. Montgomery needed three tech falls or pins in those final three bouts to win, but Ethan Wodrig wrestled returning state medalist Manny Stoltzfus extremely well at 107 to prevent Stoltzfus from accumulating points or getting him in position to pin him as Wodrig won by decision, 3-0.

But while that loss in the semifinals prevented the Red Raiders from capturing gold, Montgomery kept at it in the consolations and beat Line Mountain in a close dual, 31-25, to advance to the third-place bout.

Harer knows how tough the sport of wrestling is, which is why he doesn’t have any expectations for this week’s PIAA Class AA team tournament.

“There are no expectations. We don’t put expectations on ourselves, we compete,” Harer said. “This sport is hard enough. We’re going to go, we’re going to compete and put our best foot forward and whatever happens happens.”