The Eagles sent three wrestlers to the Keystone State Wrestling Championships held March 17-19 at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, bringing home a pair of medal-winning eighth-place finishes in the process.

Johnathan Sullivan finished eighth in the 9-10 year-old boys 150-pound bracket while McKenzie Hodak placed eighth in the 11-12 year-old girls 73-pound bracket. Tucker Sanford also finished up a strong season for Youngsville while competing in the 11-12 year-old boys 125-pound bracket.

The Little Eagles standouts qualified for the Keystone State tournament with their finishes at a Keystone qualifier held earlier in March at the Bayfront Convention Center in Erie. There, Sullivan finished in fourth place with Sanford taking fifth place.

Sullivan began his state tournament with a quick pin of Chestnut Ridge’s Colton Hill before dropping to the consolation bracket via a pinfall loss. Undeterred, Sullivan rebounded with quick pins of Shippenville’s Jacob Vasan and Patrick Gallo. Sullivan qualified for the medal round with a 4-2 decision over Cornell’s James Tisak before a pair of close decision losses left him with a stellar eighth-place showing for the tournament.

Youngsville Little Eagles wrestler McKenzie Hodak finished in eighth place in the 11-12 year-old girls, 73-pound weight class of the Keystone State Wrestling Championships held March 17-19 at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Hodak started her tournament with a gritty 2-1 victory over Sophie Hensel of Slippery Rock before falling via first period pin to eventual tournament champion Brooklyn Henry of Gettysburg. In the consolation bracket, Hodak fought back nicely with a 4-0 victory to place her in the medal rounds before dropping a pair of hard-fought decisions to finish the tournament 2-3 with an eighth-place finish.

“The kids were super excited to compete on such a high stage against some of the best wrestlers in the state at their age and weights,” said Little Eagles coach Dan Sullivan. “We love to see the fact these kids are listening, learning and growing as young kids. It takes a lot of courage to compete on a stage like that by yourself. It’s a one-on-one sport and they have thousands of eyes on them and to see them rise to this level and succeed is amazing.”

The quick rise in success isn’t entirely new to the Little Eagles. The program has come an extremely long way in a short period of time under the direction of Sullivan, Mike Cressley, Mike Darling, Rusty Hodak, Brad Renwick and countless others.

“When we took over this program, we only had eight kids signed up and this year we had 62 wrestlers sign up,” said Sullivan. “It takes a community to grow a program like this and our community has helped us out time after time.”

The Little Eagles are set to compete in the Pennsylvania Junior State Wrestling Championships this weekend at the University of Pittsburgh.

“I hope from this experience they understand that they can compete with just about anybody in the state,” added Sullivan. “This will give them some confidence in themselves for the future. The future looks bright for Youngsville wrestling.”