Jenna Houseknecht of Montgomery throws Brianna Godshall of Upper Perkiomen to the mat during their match at 112 pounds at the Matness at the MACC at Liberty Arena in downtown Williamsport. DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette

Whenever Jenna Houseknecht practices or competes, one thing is on the back of her mind and that’s another trip to Hershey to compete in the girls wrestling state tournament. Houseknecht has been there already, in fact last year she took home a bronze medal in Hershey.

But all that did was give her motivation and fueled her to get better. So every tournament or dual, Houseknecht goes out and keeps competing to show why she’s a talented wrestler.

“I’m so excited (to get back to states). The goal is the top of the podium this year,” a smiling Houseknecht said on Saturday. “Every practice I just want to climb that podium.”

The latest example came Saturday.

At the MATNESS at the MACC Tournament at Liberty Arena on Saturday, Houseknecht went a perfect 3-0 in her round-robin pool at 112 pounds, picking up pinfall wins against Upper Perkiomen’s Brianna Godshall (4:37), Central Dauphin’s Nikita Muithuri (1:28) and Camp Hill’s Vero Menanga (0:41).

Once in the championship bracket, Houseknecht pinned Williamson’s Maddison Fay in 2:58 and in the first-place finals, earned a win against Godshall again, this time in the third period in 5:18.

Houseknecht is ranked fourth at her weight in the latest state rankings and is behind only Conwell-Egan’s Julia Horger (No. 1), Easton’s Morgan Hyland (No. 2) and Northern York’s Makayla Smith (No. 3).

Houseknecht noted that Montgomery’s team success is an extension of her own. When one Raider has a good dual, it rubs off on her teammates and extends throughout. It starts in the weight room and carries on.

“We have a really solid room and we encourage each other. We’re one big huge family. We all are really supportive and push each other,” Houseknecht said. “A lot (of other schools) are like ‘you are too mean in the room’ or ‘oh, I don’t really like you.’ No, we’re the complete opposite. We want to push each other to make each other better. We have really great coaches and a really great athletic director who’s our weight-lifting coach. Our coaches are really amazing. Our team atmosphere is great.

“It’s just leading us to more success,” Houseknecht added.

Houseknecht is well on her way to matching her win total from her freshman season. After a 36-5 campaign last year which resulted in a District 4 gold medal, Central Regional gold medal and bronze state medal, Houseknecht is now 16-1 with 12 of her victories coming by fall.

Over the summer, Houseknecht had an injury and had to work back from it, but she’s not only improved and gotten better, but continues to work hard and better herself as well.

“She again continues to do all the things she could possibly do even though she had some down time. Her mindset of working on her just being better and doing things she was able to do even though wrestling may not have been it, there were a lot of other things she was doing,” Montgomery coach Jodi Furman said.

“As soon as she steps on the mat she knows what her goals are and after last year’s results, she wasn’t satisfied even with that as a freshman,” Furman continued. “She knows she has to put in the work in the offseason and continue to put in the time and the effort. Even higher this year, she won’t take anything but great results from her own personal experiences.”

Houseknecht knows she’s capable of getting back to states and winning matches, but she also knows she can’t be over confident. As she noted, every match starts 0-0 no matter who she’s against, so even though she has confidence being a state medalist, she stays grounded.

“It gives a little bit of confidence just knowing I have capability and capable of doing really great things, but I also take that with a grain of salt, anything can happen,” Houseknecht said. “Every match starts 0-0 but to be confident in your abilities as a wrestler.”

Houseknecht added that she improved a decent amount from last year to this season and worked a lot over the summer.

“I had an injury so I was a little out for that, but I definitely improved in some weak areas and continue to grow in my stronger areas,” Houseknecht said.

And that improvement has been evident and noticeable to everyone, including teammate Zoe Furman, the program’s first-ever state finalist last year as she took silver.

“I think she’s starting to get there, I think she’s starting to wrestle like herself and really open girls up and get on her attack and offense,” Zoe Furman said. “Honestly injuries suck, they stay in the back of your mind, but I think once she gets that all the way through, she’s going to be tough to beat.”

Houseknecht is already proving she’s tough to beat on the mat. Just ask her opponents from the MATNESS at the MACC. They’ll likely agree.