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<p>It&#8217;s always a nice prize to leave the regional tournament with a gold medal wrapped around your neck.</p><p>It signifies that hard work during the season is paying off and that what a wrestler is doing is getting the job done against some of the best competition in the state whether being in Class 2A against District 4 opponents or in Class 3A versus District 11 and 12 rivals.</p><p>It&#8217;s also a good warm-up for what&#8217;s to come at the PIAA Championships as the three regional titlists from the Wyoming Valley Conference will say. But it&#8217;s also just another step on the road to the ultimate goal of a state championship or medal.</p><p>But it&#8217;s not the end of the season for those who didn&#8217;t claim a regional title. In fact, it might be the start of something special.</p><p>Last year, Scranton&#8217;s William Evanitsky won a state title after placing third at the Class 3A Northeast Regional Tournament. The two years prior, Hazleton Area&#8217;s Jimmy Hoffman reached the state final in consecutive seasons without claiming gold at regionals. Hoffman finished at regionals in 2017 and fourth in 2016, but still managed to get to the state championship match.</p><p>The last two state champions from the WVC, Nate Eachus from Hazleton Area and Scott Davis from Lake-Lehman in 2007 also didn&#8217;t win regional titles; Eachus was runner-up, while Davis placed third.</p><p>&#8220;Really, being a regional champ has its advantages because you get a little extra bonus there, but it&#8217;s all where you fall in the brackets and that&#8217;s just pure luck. Sometimes you get a good bracket and sometimes you get a bad bracket,&#8221; Dallas coach Mike Richards said. &#8220;It&#8217;s nice to have that title of regional champions, but ultimately it doesn&#8217;t mean a whole lot when you get down to states. Nobody cares about who won the region when you get down to states.&#8221;</p><p>That&#8217;s great news for eight of the 11 WVC state qualifiers, who didn&#8217;t win regionals. Tunkhannock&#8217;s Dave Evans and Hanover Area&#8217;s D.J. Erickson both won regional gold in Class 2A, while Hazleton Area&#8217;s Shane Noonan walked out of Liberty High School with a gold in 3A.</p><p>Dallas&#8217; Steven Newell and Shawn Henniger were both regional runner-up in Class 3A, and Wyoming Valley West&#8217;s David Krokowski placed third in the tournament.</p><p>In Class 2A, Tunkhannock&#8217;s Gavin D&#8217;Amato took third, Hanover Area&#8217;s Joey Rowley was fourth as was Lake-Lehman&#8217;s Bob Long, Hunter Burke and T.J. Meehan.</p><p><strong>No consolation here</strong></p><p>Many times a wrestler leaves the district tournament without a gold medal and is upset because it&#8217;s one of the top goals of the season.</p><p>However, it was important to regroup and get ready for regionals. And now it&#8217;s a new tournament and anything can happen.</p><p>Henniger, Long and Burke all left Hazleton Area High School as district second-place medalists, while Rowley was a district third. But they all found a way to move on to the state tournament with big wins at regionals.</p><p>&#8220;I sat back a little bit, had a day off, went to work and next day we came in to practice and went back into the grind,&#8221; Henniger said about losing the district final to Nanticoke Area&#8217;s Shane Repasky. &#8220;I was a little upset, but happy for making regionals for the third time so we just worked on the positives and whatever else I needed to work on.&#8221;</p><p>A third-place district finisher from the WVC reaching states happened for the second straight year as last year Crestwood&#8217;s Shane O&#8217;Rourke did just that in Class 3A.</p><p>Rowley is the first from the WVC in Class 2A to take third at districts and reach the state tournament since 2002 when Meyers&#8217; Wally Geiger and Lake-Lehman&#8217;s Ed Becker both did so.</p><p><strong>Quick takedowns</strong></p><p>When Evans won the regional gold at 120 pounds for Tunkhannock in Class 2A, he became the first regional titlist in school history. When his teammate D&#8217;Amato reached the state tournament by winning his blood round bout at 145, it marked the first time in school history that the Tigers will have multiple participants in the same state tournament.</p><p>Erickson&#8217;s regional championship was the first for Hanover Area since Tim Martinez in 2001. Prior to that win, when he won his semifinal bout to qualify for states, Erickson became the first three-time state qualifier for the Hawkeyes since Fritz Bleich in 1976. His 38 wins this season also sets the school record for wins in a season, previously held in 1998 by Jesse Martinez.</p><p>With his appearance in the state tournament, Rowley is now a two-time state-qualifying athlete in the same school year. During the fall sports season, he qualified for the PIAA Championships in cross country. Hanover Area will have two participants in the state wrestling tournament for the first time since 2001 when Eric Bleich and Tim Martinez went together.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Dallas&#8217; Steven Newell, left, was a regional runner-up in Class 3A this past weekend. But his season doesn&#8217;t stop there. Newell still has a chance for gold. He&#8217;s one of eight WVC grapplers that missed out on gold at regionals who will get a shot at redemption this weekend at states. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/web1_wres3_faa.jpg</photo0><caption0>Dallas&#8217; Steven Newell, left, was a regional runner-up in Class 3A this past weekend. But his season doesn&#8217;t stop there. Newell still has a chance for gold. He&#8217;s one of eight WVC grapplers that missed out on gold at regionals who will get a shot at redemption this weekend at states. </caption0><photoCredit0>Fred Adams file photo | For Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>After missing out on gold wrestlers get 2nd chance</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Dave Rosengrant</p><p>For Times Leader</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Times Leader sports at 570-829-7143 or on Twitter @TLsports</p></shirttailMeta></div>

It’s not over: After missing out on gold wrestlers get 2nd chance at states