HUGHESVILLE — Montoursville senior Gage Wentzel was asked what it meant for the team to see quite a few wrestlers move on from the Central Sectional tournament at Hughesville. Wentzel didn’t take long to form an answer.

Plain and simple, that’s just what it means to wear a singlet with Montoursville: success.

“Every single year with Montoursville wrestling it’s going to be good, but every team is different than before. Whether that’s in some ways we lack, some ways we’re better than before, but it all comes together and makes a really good team,” Wentzel said. “I couldn’t be more proud of everybody, you know what I mean? Some of our top guys had to keep showing up. You keep showing up when you’re supposed to be winning and you’re not, that takes a lot of heart. That’s why Montoursville is Montoursville.”

And Montoursville was superb on Saturday, that’s for sure. The Warriors took second in the team tournament race with 171.5 points, trailing only Montgomery (220). And that was due to Montoursville having seven wrestlers qualify for the District 4 championship tournament.

Montoursville’s Branden Eisenhour (107 pounds), Teli Bobotas (133), Wentzel (172) and Hayden Harvey (189) all won gold medals while Gabriel Vanderwall (285) took silver and Brody Bower (127), Kaden Kleinman (139) and Blake Frey (160) were all bronze medalists.

“It’s definitely a team thing. Once you see your teammates do it, you want to do it,” Wentzel said. “Practice hard together in the mat room, cheering each other on whenever everybody’ wrestling and going out and wrestling for Montoursville and glory to God as a whole.”

Wentzel made school history on Saturday when he won his semifinal match at 172 with a 12-second fall over Central Columbia’s Logan Miller. The victory gave him win No. 177 for his career, moving him past former three-time state champion Gavin Hoffman’s record of 176.

Wentzel dominated in the championship final. Wentzel, ranked No. 2 at 172, accumulated 17 points en route to a 17-2, 3:52 tech fall victory over No. 30th-ranked Jayden Hamm of South Williamsport.

At 107, Eisenhour had a day at sectionals. The fourth-ranked Warrior had a 19-3, 2:46 tech fall win against Gannon Swank of Muncy in the semifinals and then secured a fall against Benton’s Korben Collae, ranked No. 12, in the second period, 3:30.

“Very happy. I feel like I’m doing the right things at the right time of the year, putting in the work. It’s showing,” Eisenhour said.

Against Collae, Eisenhour knew he had to wrestle well to secure the victory.

“Finals (my) technique wasn’t really there, so I came at his movement,” Eisenhour said. “I had to keep moving from one direction to another, ended up getting a take down there.”

Like Eisenhour, Bobotas dominated on Saturday too. Bobotas, a three-time state qualifier who is ranked No. 8 in Pennsylvania, pinned Montgomery’s Carter Finck in the quarterfinals in 63 seconds before then pinning Benton’s Gunner Sternhagen in 1:45 to advance to the final.

Once in the final, Bobotas kept wrestling great and never let up against Kase Snyder of Muncy. Bobotas kept accumulating points and secured a third-period tech fall early, 17-1, 2:28, to win his third consecutive Central Sectional gold medal.

Montoursville’s final gold medal came via Hayden Harvey’s efforts at 189. Harvey, who’s ranked No. 6 in Pennsylvania, ha a first-round bye and in the semifinals, pinned South Williamsport’s Cole Gerber in 1:17. In the final, Harvey went up against Bloomsburg’s Hunter Collett, the second seed in the field and a wrestler with 27 wins entering the first-place final. Against Collett, Harvey had a first-period pin in 1:11.

Vanderwall had a tough matchup at 285 against No. 14th-ranked Clayton Whitenight of Central Columbia, a 29-win wrestler. Vanderwall ended up battling him tough and came up narrowly shy.

Vanderwall had a huge reversal 38 seconds into the second period for a 2-0 lead before Whitenight made it a 2-1 deficit with a reversal with 69 seconds remaining. Whitenight went ahead, 3-2, with a reversal and two points with 1:46 to wrestle. From there, however, Vanderwall wasn’t able to get any momentum going and couldn’t secure any points or escapes to attempt to win.

Kleinman fell into the consolation semifinals and had an 8-5 decision win against Caiden Schuckers of Benton to reach the third-place final. Once he had the district-qualifying spot secured, Kleinman had a great matchup against state-ranked AJ Kroft, ranked No. 30 in Pennsylvania. Kleinman took Kroft down with 31 seconds remaining in the first period for a 3-0 lead and kept that lead heading into the third period after a scoreless second.

In that third period, Kroft had an escape with 28 seconds remaining, but wasn’t able to score more against Kleinman as the Warrior won and improved to 29-14. 

At 127, Bower lost in the championship semifinals to eventual champion Carden Wagner of Montgomery by major decision, 16-4. Bower then secured a tough, hard-fought 3-0 decision victory against Sugar Valley’s Hunter Baney. Bower scored the lone points with a first-period takedown with 20 seconds left and held on from there.

After losing in a third overtime period by decision 1-1 UTB to Montgomery’s Josh Knoebel in the championship semifinals in one of the best matches on Saturday, Frey won in the consolations to reach the third-place bout. And, just like against Knoebel, Frey had to wrestle with little room for error against South Williamsport’s Cade Lusk. 

Frey did precisely that, securing an escape in the second period six seconds into the period and never allowed Lusk to score a point for the remaining 3:54 of the bout.

The Warriors are glad to have seven moving onto the District 4 tournament and hope to see more success on Saturday.

“I’m very happy. We’re working hard as a team, it’s showing. We obviously have some guys who should be going further in the tournament, but things happen,” Eisenhour said. “But the guys who are here, guys who are placing for districts, they’re putting in the work and they’re doing what they’re supposed to do.”