COAL TOWNSHIP — Junior Conner Heckman notched career win No. 100 Saturday before finishing second in the District 4 Class 2A South Sectional tournament at 132 pounds, one of three Midd-West wrestlers to advance to this weekend’s district championship tournament.

Freshman Matthew Smith continued his remarkable first season with a title at 120 while sophomore teammate Caden Wolfley took third at 160 at Shamokin Area High School.

They will compete Friday and Saturday in the district tournament, from which the top six place-winners from each weight class will advance to the Northeast Regional a week later.

Smith improved to 27-8 with a 3-0 victory over Line Mountain sophomore Nolan Baumert in the finals.

After a scoreless first period, Baumert (now 26-8) took the bottom in the second but Smith turned him for two back points before the Eagle escaped to send it to the third at 2-1. Smith escaped in the third for the final margin.

Midd-West coach Dale Franquet said he was not surprised that his freshman captured a sectional title his first time out.

“We went to lots of quality tournaments this year and there were kids at 2Aand 3A and he had some tight matches, some close matches,” Franquet said. “That didn’t surprise me one bit. He’s been wrestling real well. I knew he had the ability to do it. He’s peaking at the right time of the year.”

Franquet said Smith has been in the program since he was a young kid, but he is still a young freshman at age 14.

“He had to grow up quick and learn how to compete at a different level,” Franquet said. “He lost a couple matches earlier to some quality kids but as the season has gone on, he’s started to compete at that level with some kids who are juniors and seniors, some state quality kids.”

Smith got a 27-second pin in the opener, then majored Shamokin senior Wade Alleman 8-0 in the semis.

Meanwhile Heckman, now 32-4, got a nine-second pin in the quarterfinals for his 100th, then a pin in 3:22 in the semis before falling 1-0 in the final to fellow state medalist (fifth last year) Mason Barvitskie of Southern Columbia.

The pair wrestled through two scoreless periods before Barvitskie escaped to start the third. Heckman appeared close to a takedown later in the period, but no points were awarded and Barvitskie pulled out the win.

Franquet thought that Heckman had the third-period takedown but added that Heckman did not wrestle his best match and got out to a slow start.

“Connor wrestled at a slow pace and wrestled into Barvitskie’s kind of match,” the coach said. “The best part of it is, they’ll see each other the next three weekends.”

Wolfley earned the bronze with a 1-0 consolation final win over Shamokin senior Tyler Whary.

“He’s a young sophomore too and he’s a bit undersized at 160,” Franquet said of Wolfley, who is now 19-14.

“I thought we might get one more out (of sectionals), but I’m pleased with the way the kids wrestled. They gave me 100 percent. Some of the matches didn’t fall our way, but we are young. We have no seniors,” Franquet said.