Eisenhower's Cael Black

Warren County has a storied history on the wrestling mat.

Sixty-four county wrestlers have advanced to the PIAA State Wrestling Tournament and brought home 24 medals, including a pair of state titles from Youngsville’s David Fehlman (1988) and Jim Hoffner (1993). While the Eagles hold the bragging rights to the county’s only state champs, that might not be the case for long if a pair of Eisenhower Knights have anything to say about it.

“I’d like to come home with a state championship,” Eisenhower senior Logan Jaquay said. “That would be awesome.”

The Knights’ 113-pounder already has one state medal to his name, and came within a match of grabbing another. He was part of a trio of Eisenhower wrestlers, along with Joey Bauer and Cael Black, who advanced to Hershey last season. The first time in program history three wrestlers went to states in the same season.

Jaquay burst on the scene as a freshman and wrestled his way to a 28-14 record, a fifth place finish at districts and a trip to regions. He followed that up with an even better campaign as a sophmore. Jaquay was 37-8, won sections, finished third at both districts and regions and won a medal with an eighth place finish at states. He was 35-5 last season with a district and region title, and picked up is 100th career win at the state tournament.

He’ll enter his senior season with a great chance to leave as the program’s all-time wins leader (currently held by Travis Hummel, 117). Jaquay is also within striking distance of D.J. Fehlman’s Warren County wins record (135). Fehlman was also at exactly 100 wins heading into his senior season.

“I set my goals high and work hard to achieve them,” Jaquay said. “It would be awesome to come home from Hershey with two medals. It would be a good way to go out.”

Jaquay wasn’t the only one writing his name in the history books.

Black’s 34 wins last year were most by a freshman in the program’s history. He had fifth place finishes at both sections and districts before taking home the region title.

Despite the success, Black knows there’s more work to be done.

“It’s going to be tough (to build on last season),” he said. “I’ve got to win some of the closer matches I lost last year. I want to qualify for states again and get on the podium.”

Of course, neither grappler is looking that far ahead. With the regular season dual match opener against Youngsville right around the corner, both are focused on making the Knights the best team they can.

“We are a pretty young team,” Jaquay said.

“There are 10 guys who are first year kids or never wrestled before. We’ve got to help them out as much as we can, teach them a few tricks and watch them improve.”

Eisenhower is coming off its second straight trip to the District 10 duals, but will have to replace not only a state qualifier in Bauer, but region qualifier Alex Barnett and district qualifiers Garrett Head and Ethan Chambers. Bauer, Barnett and Head were region all-stars as well.

Still, the Knights, led by Jaquay and Black, have a solid nucleus returning with region qualifiers Gannon Jaquay and Josh Bortz along with senior Jesse Gourley and junior Easton Hedman.

“I think we have some guys who will step up a little bit,” Jaquay said. “We’ll be right in the mix.”

The Knights know the team and individual goals they want to achieve won’t come without hard work. But they’ve shown a willingness to sacrifice to continue adding to that storied county history.

“Guys are getting extra workouts in,” Black said. “We expect a lot out of each other. We want to be the top team.”