The Montgomery senior, who will wrestle at Rutgers, goes out and beats whoever’s on the mat and those wins just continue to pile up. And last weekend, Harer etched his name in Montgomery history. With a win on Friday evening, Harer became Montgomery’s all-time wins leader, surpassing his brother Conner’s mark when he won his 191st match.

“It’s great. I’m just living and learning and getting better every single day,” Harer said after a dual recently. “I go out and try to score as many points as possible. Eventually, whatever happens, happens. I’ve been doing great this year and I plan to keep doing that.”

Harer entered the season with 157 career wins and knew he was able to break his brother’s mark. For most wrestlers, an outstanding year would be needed to make a run at 40 wins in a season. For Harer, that’s just normal.

When asked if the goal was to break his brother’s record this year, Harer simply noted that he goes out and just does his best.

DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette Brandt Harer of Montgomery scores points within the first few seconds of his match against Haze Mullen of Montoursville during a dual earlier this year. Harer became the program’s all-time wins leader and is now within striking distance of the all-time Pennsylvania record of 206 as Harer sits at 196 and counting.

“I think that just wrestling goes along with that. As I keep getting better and winning, the wins just add up,” Harer said. “I just go out and do my best. That’s what’s going on.”

And Harer’s far from finished. He’s a three-time state finalist and won two straight gold medals the past two years. He hasn’t lost a match since the state final his freshman year in March, 2023 and he obviously wants to cap his career with yet another state title.

But aside from more postseason gold medals, Harer has a chance to do more individually.

He currently is three wins shy of tying Upper Perkiomen’s Zack Kemmerer for second all-time in Pennsylvania history for wins with 199. And Harer is only 11 from breaking Northern Lebanon’s Aaron Seidel’s state record mark of 206.

In addition, Harer has a chance to become the first-ever wrestler in Pennsylvania history to record 100 tech falls.

RALPH WILSON/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Montgomery's Brooke Knoebel wrestles Williamsport's Malaina Comfort at 100 pounds during Thursday’s dual at Montgomery. Comfort beat Knoebel and is making an impact this year with the Millionaires.

“Nobody’s ever done it and he’s going to do it,” Montgomery coach Denny Harer said after beating Danville this year.

The Montgomery senior is at 95 and counting and has won 31 matches this year by tech fall. In other words, No. 100 is on the horizon.

After beating Danville convincingly earlier this month in a dual, coach Harer said that this season was going by too quick with a laugh. He earned his 350th coaching win and his son Brandt was on his way to breaking Conner’s mark. But Denny knew that Brandt’s wins would end up a lot higher when it’s all said and done.

“He’s going to break the Pennsylvania state record,” coach Harer said. “He obviously wants to win third state title, tech everybody and break his brother’s record and PA record. Honestly, we’re just here for the journey watching it. He doesn’t need motivation, that kid’s self motivated.”

And he’s fun to watch wrestle, too.

PREPARING FOR THE POSTSEASON

The wrestling postseason is right around the corner for both boys and girls competition. This weekend marks the District 4 Duals for the boys with the quarterfinals beginning this morning, but the girls side, wrestlers are preparing for the individual tournament which is soon approaching.

For Williamsport, Hughesville and Montgomery, all three are ready for the District 4 tournament and feel they’re prepared.

“Overall I think our girls are kind of coming around and figuring it out. We have a ton of first year girls, all those ninth graders are first years and figuring it out, but the future does look bright,” Williamsport coach Kevin Werner said. “Great group of kids, great grades, you can’t ask for more.”

The Millionaires and Red Raiders both have competed in numerous tournaments this year including the Hanover Area Holiday Classic, the Mid-Winter Mayhem, the Queen of the Dam Tournament in DuBois, the Bald Eagle Area Tournament and Montgomery’s MATNESS at the MACC.

All of that gives Williamsport and Montgomery’s wrestlers solid competition, knowing they’ll face tough wrestlers through districts and regionals.

“We absolutely are (prepared). We haven’t really had the opportunity to get the dual scene, get the real feel of the dual scene the last couple of years just being short in numbers or going through injuries. Now finally the tide kind of turned, we had some injuries earlier but now the girls are coming back and mending well,” Montgomery coach Jodi Furman said. “Now we get those last three duals under us the girls had some time off and took some mental breaks and now you really felt wrestling Muncy on Tuesday and wrestling tonight that they really regrouped themselves and really are ready to head into the postseason healthy and mentally strong as well.”

Montgomery is 8-4 this year in dual competition and Hughesville is 13-2. Montgomery, Hughesville and Williamsport all have plenty of talented wrestlers returning from last year as well hoping to make another run in the postseason en route to states at Hershey.

Hughesville went 4-2 at the Boiling Springs Duals this year, took first at the Honesdale Queen of the Hive Tournament, went 6-0 at the Queen of the Mountain Duals tournament and finished first at the Curwensville Tournament.

Wrap it all together, and Hughesville coach Royce Eyer is glad at his team’s success, not just from an individual standpoint, but as a team as well heading into the postseason.

“I was very happy with the schedule and the level of competition we wrestled this season. Our girls wrestled a lot of matches and, more importantly, good solid competition,” Eyer said. “Hopefully all of that experience pays off for us in the postseason. That’s what we are preparing for.”

ONE EXCITING

TOURNAMENT

The District 4 Duals tournament, which resumes today at Milton High School at 11 a.m., is shaping up to be an exciting one for area wrestling fans.

Montgomery, Mifflinburg and Montoursville are all in the Class AA quarterfinals and all three are ranked in the top-12 in the state. Montgomery (21-0) is ranked No. 9, the highest ranking for a District 4 team, Mifflinburg (17-0) is ranked No. 10 and Montoursville (15-4) is ranked No. 12.

A win in the quarterfinals by Montoursville (vs. Williamson) and Montgomery (vs. Wyalusing) would pit the two state-ranked teams against each other in the semifinals with a berth to the final on the line.

Montgomery secured a 33-30 win against Montoursville on Jan. 20, and there’s no reason to think a rematch on Saturday wouldn’t be just as good for Round 2.

Get comfy at Milton’s gym on Saturday, there’s going to be some fun wrestling for those in attendance.

MAKING AN IMPACT

Williamsport’s Malaina Comfort got the bump up from competing at the junior high level and finally got her start at the varsity level. As a sophomore, she was more than happy to get that opportunity.

Not only is Comfort showing she’s ready for varsity, she’s excelling on the mat.

Comfort is already ranked in the state as she’s No. 6 at 100 pounds this year and is 16-3 following a hard-fought win against Montgomery’s Brooke Knoebel, ranked No. 5, on Thursday in a dual.

Comfort wrestled outstanding against Knoebel, scoring points early and not letting Knoebel get an offensive surge. It resulted with a 14-5 major decision win on Thursday.

“I think I’m very fast and even if somebody’s very defensive, I work on my offense very hard,” Comfort said.

And her speed was on display. In the final 30 seconds of Thursday’s bout with Knoebel, the Millionaire countered everything Knoebel attempted trying to get a pin late and kept the lead for the major decision victory and didn’t let Knoebel score points to turn it into a regular decision win.

“Malaina has progressively gotten better. She’s got a really good motor, she moves quite a bit. That’s probably the third or fourth girl that she’s beat that is in the rankings, probably top 10, a couple honorable mentions,” Williamsport coach Kevin Werner said.

Thursday’s win by Comfort avenged an earlier-season loss to Knoebel in which the Red Raider pinned her.

“I think I’m looking for a state medal now. I’m very excited to go to states and prepare for it,” Comfort said.

Comfort also said she’s improved a lot since the season began to now.

“I think working on my shots and moving up from junior high to varsity is a huge step this year and I made so much improvement.”

Jon Gerardi is the sports editor at the Sun-Gazette. He can be reached by email at jgerardi@sungazette.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JonGerardi.