HUGHESVILLE — After a dual meet against Hughesville in late January, South Williamsport boys wrestling coach Eric Gerber was asked about his team upping their schedule this year with tough tournaments. He knew that it would give his wrestlers a microcosm of what the postseason would be like.

“”We added some bigger tournaments this year to prepare us because we know when we get to sectionals, districts, just wrestling in District 4, no matter where you go you’re wrestling someone state ranked, a state placewinner, a state champion,” Gerber said that night. “So to try to prepare for that and be in those environments throughout the season is starting to pay off for us right now.”

Fast forward to Saturday, and that schedule has shown its paid off for the Mounties.

South Williamsport had seven wrestlers advance from the Central Sectional tournament at Hughesville to reach the District 4 championships. The Mounties were third in the team race as well with 121 points, trailing only Central Sectional champion Montgomery and runner-up Montoursville.

Jayden Hamm was South Williamsport’s lone wrestler to reach the championship finals as six other Mounties competed in the third-place finals.

Hamm finished with a silver medal after falling to Montoursville’s all-time wins leader Gage Wentzel via tech fall, 17-2, 3:52.  In the third-place finals, Jonah Caputo and Cole Gerber were bronze medalists while Garrett Bacorn, Garrett Lorson, Cade Lusk and Oz Bird finished with fourth-place medals.

Hamm earned an 18-3, 2:17 tech fall against Loyalsock’s Curtis Lewis in the championship quarterfinals and majored Montgomery’s Raiden Felix in the semifinals, 12-2 to reach the first-place final.

Caputo outlasted Hughesville’s Ethan Wodrig to take third at 133 pounds with a tough 12-9 decision victory. Caputo had a first-period takedown for three points and an early lead. In the second period, after an escape to open the period by Wodrig, Caputo had a takedown with 55 seconds remaining and a 6-1 lead. However a nice escape and then takedown within a 16-second span helped Wodrig narrow the deficit to 6-5 before an escape to close the period put Caputo ahead, 7-5, going to the final two minutes.

Wodrig would have an escape and takedown late in the third period for four points, but an escape and takedown early in the period by Caputo helped seal the matchup and bronze medal for the Mountie.

Caputo’s lone loss on Saturday came in the championship quarterfinals when he was pinned in 3:26 by Muncy’s Kase Snyder. He then beat Sugar Valley’s Gabe Standish in the consolation quarterfinals with a fall in 2:33 before pinning Benton’s Gunner Sternhagen in 1:55 in the consolation semifinals.

Gerber defeated Montgomery standout Gage Furman in the third-place final at 189 by decision in a close match, 6-4. The South Williamsport 189 pounder held a 3-0 lead late in the first period with a takedown with 18 seconds remaining. And another takedown with 1:12 left in the second period gave Gerber a 6-2 lead heading to the final period.

Furman was awarded two points with 44 and 10 seconds remaining, respectively, thanks to stalling calls, but Furman couldn’t get Gerber down late to secure key points to win that matchup.

Lorson fell to Bloomsburg’s Alex Billmeyer by decision, 12-7, in the 145 third-place match. Billmeyer accumulated eight second-period points to hold an 8-0 lead going to the final two minutes. Lorson wrestled well in the final period and scored seven points thanks to two takedowns and an escape, but a reversal with 1:20 left and a nearfall with 40 seconds remaining helped Billmeyer seal the victory.

In the 160 third-place final, Lusk lost an extremely tight matchup to Montoursville’s Blake Frey, 1-0. Both wrestled a scoreless first period and Frey scored his lone point with an escape six seconds into the second period. But from there, Frey prevented Lusk from scoring any points to seal the win.

At 285, Bird wrestled a tough matchup against Keigan Clark and fell by decision, 10-6. Bird had a takedown with 16 seconds left in the first period to lead, 3-0, and Clark had a point awarded on a technical violation to close the second period out with Bird ahead, 3-1.

However, the third period belonged to Clark. The Red Raider accumulated three takedowns within a 41-second span to score nine key points.

Bacorn suffered a 9-2 loss in the third-place 107 final to Gannon Swank of Muncy. The two were tied 2-2 after the second period, but Swank used a takedown with 25 seconds left and a nearfall for four points to close out the period to win.