Jan 11, 2025
Kile Hartman of Hughesville controls the action as he wrestles Nathan Martin of Selinsgrove during their match at 145 pounds during the PHAC Tournament at Milton High School. DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette
Hughesville coach Troy Charles was constantly on the move on Saturday evening at Milton. He could be seen sitting in a chair coaching a wrestler on Mat 3 for a fifth-place final. Then, once that match concluded, he didn’t have much time to quickly get over to Mat 2 to coach another wrestler competing for third.
Such is the life of a coach when your program is producing talented wrestler after talented wrestler.
At the PHAC Championships on Saturday, Hughesville had two wrestlers competing for a first-place title, three competing for third and another six competing for a fifth-place title. All in all, it resulted with Hughesville finishing third in the team race with 167 points behind only Montoursville (209) and Shikellamy (186.5).
“I think this year we have a really great team. We’ve been doing pretty well every tournament we’ve been at. Guys are picking each other up, I think that has a lot to do with our team success,” Hughesville wrestler Keagan Smith said. “We’re all in each other’s corners and I think it’s really helping, especially in the practice room just pushing each other to win those close matches and maximize our potential on the mat.”
Smith was one of Hughesville’s two wrestlers competing for a first-place title on Saturday. Smith finished as a runner-up at 152 pounds, falling in an extremely tight bout with Southern Columbia’s Brayden Andrews by decision, 7-5. Smith knew he would be in for a tight match against Andrews.
Brayden Andrews of Southern Columbia tries to take down Keagan Smith of Hughesville during their match at 152 pounds during the PHAC Tournament at Milton High School. DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette
“Against any of these Southern guys you gotta know they’re going to be a tough match. It’s going to come down to who’s winning that mental battle, who wants it more, who can be right enough in their own head to just get out there and show what you know,” Smith said.
Smith had to work for every point against Andrews, and while Smith wrestled a solid match, he wasn’t able to secure those key points late to get a win over Andrews.
“I think it was just a mental battle. It was just the unwillingness to commit to those shots. I had a lot of opportunities to score, I just didn’t take him,” Smith said. “He was definitely doing majority of the work on his feet. In the end he just wanted it more there and I wasn’t really getting out there and doing what I usually do on my feet.”
Hughesville’s Kile Hartman came away with a dominating win at 145 to secure a title as he majored Nathan Martin of Selinsgrove, 14-0. Hartman never let Martin get any offense going and controlled from start to finish. Hartman also beat Loyalsock’s Kayden Keefer in the semifnials by major decision, 14-5.
“It feels pretty good (to win the title), I’ve been working pretty hard in the offseason and during the season. It helped motivated me,” Hartman said. “I just have to keep my feet moving the best that I can and try to get to my offense and get off the bottom.”
Hartman noted that the key was staying in good position and scoring the first takedown for the lead and just wrestling his style from there.
Taking home third-place medals from Hughesville were Mason Mordan (160) and Conor Knight (172). Mordan defeated Shikellamy’s Cole Wetzel by decision, 2-1, UTB, and Knight secured a fall against Lewisburg’s Chase Wenrich in 3:31. Hughesville’s Ethan Wodrig lost by decision at 107 to Montoursville’s Branden Eisenhour, 11-5.
Hughesville’s Chase Shaner worked hard against Shikellamy’s Eben Kisner at 133 in the fifth-place finals to secure a 4-0 decision and never let Kisner counter in the match for key points in the second or third periods. Shaner knew he’d be in for a tough day when he fell into the consolation bracket and had to battle.
“There’s a lot of good kids in that bracket. We’re all ranked right next to each other in the state. You just have to find a way to get to the medal rounds and find a way to just get through each match,” Shaner said. “That’s the main goal, you have to keep fighting through it.”
Shaner’s ranked No. 18 in the state and had a bracket that consisted of eighth-ranked Anthony Barra of Bloomsburg, No. 15th-ranked Blaize Vogel of Montoursville and No. 17th-ranked Ben Straub of Mifflinburg.
“We were looking through the bracket and we knew it’d be a tough bracket because we have a lot of top-20 state ranked guys,” Shaner said. “There’s four or five from top 20 in the state.”
Shaner had a first-round bye before he defeated Milton’s Canaan Robinson by fall in 1:28 in the quarterfinals. Shaner lost to Straub in a very close contest, 3-1, in the semifinals to drop into the consolation bracket.
Shaner attacked fast and early against Kisner in the fifth-place match.
“Get a takedown early and then ride him out and just wear him down and score points,” Shaner said as to what was key in the bout. “My coach always says if you get the first takedown, you’re most likely going to win the match. I got a takedown early and then just rode him out and scored points if I could.”
In addition to Shaner, Hughesville’s Wesley Harvey (139) and Wyatt Gavitt (189) took fifth-place titles home. Hughesville’s Jarret Whitmoyer (114), Casey Mook (12) and Luke Stutzman (215 finished sixth.
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