Sentinel photo by MIKE GOSS Mifflin County's Andrew Alexander wins in a 9-5 decision against Liberty's Elijah Heimbach in the 118-pound weight class consolations on Friday.

HERSHEY — The intensity on the mats continued to climb as the five local wrestlers found themselves winning or going home in the second day of the PIAA wrestling state championships at the Giant Center in Hershey Park.

What started with five wrestlers still in contention, dropped to one by the middle of the afternoon and later none.

The lone wrestler notching a win on the day was Mifflin County junior Andrew Alexander started off his day with an afternoon victory over Liberty’s Elijah Heimbach in the second consolation round, 9-5.

Alexander started aggressively working and then putting Heimbach down, taking control of the match. He would take the 3-point lead into the second period. Alexander chose the bottom position and was able to pull out an escape to lead 4-0.

In the third, he added yet another before Heimbach tried to make a comeback with an escape and take down of his own.

But Alexander clinched things when he was able to lock down a reversal and then hold on for the 9-5 victory, which sent him to the third round of consolations and kept his quest for a medal still alive.

However, in his second match of the night, Alexander lost in nail-biting fashion against Thomas Jefferson’s Zach Rehak, falling 4-1. The match would be decided on a takedown in the final seconds.

“He’s a hard worker and very coachable,” said Mifflin County coach Kirby Martin. “Hopefully, this will build for next year.”

Girls wrestling

Juniata’s junior and 118-pounder Madison Bryner hung tough in her match with Derry Area’s Kaila Keesecker but could not muscle out the win despite getting within five points at one point before falling 12-4. The match ended her junior season but the determined Indian wrestler is appreciative of her time at Hershey but is excited about what the future holds.

“I gave it my best today,” said Bryner after her last match.

In the match, the two locked up in the first when Keesecker shot for the legs and was able to get Bryner up and down for the takedown. But that would be only momentarily as she was able to push her way through to pick up an escape as the end of the first hit. Trailing 3-1, Bryner took the down position and again, like the first period, was able to work her way free of Keesecker’s clutches, cutting it to a 3-2 mark and then tied things at three.

Keesecker attacked the legs once again and scored her second takedown of the match, breaking the tie at 6-3.

Leading only by three in the third, Keesecker took the neutral position and once again picked up her third takedown to extend the lead to 9-3. Bryner refused to allow her to flip her in a near fall position and battled back out for yet another escape, making it a 9-4 contest.

“Being her first time, she’s definitely resilient,” said Juniata coach Jarred Dressler. “She lost that first match and she came right out of the gate with a hammer. She came off the mat and said, “Hey, I guess I’m going to have to go through the consent rounds.” Coming off her second match of the day she came off pretty solid. She was in this match too. Just a couple things we need to tweak from here on out to continue her success.”

But in the end, Keesecker added a late takedown to capture the win. Bryner was the first Juniata girls wrestler to win districts and only the second Lady Indian to reach “the Big Dance”

Class 2A

Midd-West’s Charley Paige opened day two officially with a monstrous assignment, taking down Bishop McCourt’s living wrestling phenom Bo Bassett at 145 pounds.

Paige was shooting to attempted to give Bassett his first loss of the season.

However, like 40-plus opponents before him this season, Paige came up short falling by tech fall at 17-2 at 57 seconds.

However, Paige moves on to the consolation round.

In his second matchup, Paige faced off against Colwell Eagan’s Colin Walther with hopes of continuing on.

Paige fell down early on but was able to give a last-ditch effort to win but he ran out of time losing 13-7.

The senior found himself trailing 13-2 going into the last period. He notched an escape and then was able to follow with a takedown and back points to cut it to a six-point deficit. However, it was too little too late as Walther advanced and Paige’s season and distinguished high school career came to an end.

Teammate Evan Maneval lost his first match of the morning as he fell against Alek Palko of Jefferson Morgan 13-3 to end his year for the Mustangs.

Things started out well for Maneval as he opened his match with a quick takedown. Palko picked up an escape, cutting it to 3-1.

From there, it was all Palko as he picked up a takedown after the escape to take the 4-3 lead going into the second period.

With Maneval in the top position, Palko was again able to break his way out, upping it to a 5-3 contest.

Both finished the period in the neutral position looking for an opening for a shoot. Palko found that in the final seconds of the period, upping his lead to five going into the final stanza.

From there Palko controlled the pace and added a takedown to hold onto the win, 11-3.

At 172 pounds, Mount Union’s Rowan McClain-Hartman ended his tournament in his first match of the day as well, falling to Line Mountain’s Nolan Savage 13-2.

After a first-period stalemate, Hartman took the down position in the second and used it to his advantage, notching an escape.

Savage took the momentum from there collecting a takedown and four near fall points to stretch his lead to 7-1. The third period also belonged to Savage as he allowed only an escape by Hartman in the period en route to the 13-2 victory.