Submitted photo Youngsville’s McKenzie Hodak finished as a finalist at the prestigious Phil Portuese Northeast Regional Championships in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Youngsville’s McKenzie Hodak continued her torrid run at freestyle tournaments over the weekend when she finished as a finalist at the prestigious Phil Portuese Northeast Regional Championships in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

The annual tournament is put on by USA Wrestling and regularly attracts top talent from across the northeast section of the United States. Wrestlers who place in the top six within the 16U and 18U brackets automatically qualify for the Freestyle and Greco Roman National Championships in Fargo, North Dakota.

Hodak, representing the Bad Karma Wrestling Club and wrestling in the Girls 14U 90-pound weight class, was coming off a 5-3 performance at the Ultimate Club Duals in Harrisburg. Hodak opened her tournament with a bye in the first round. She then squared off with two-time Pennsylvania girls state champion Brooklyn Henry of Gettysburg. Henry picked up an early 4-point move and followed it up with 2 additional points before scoring the fall.

The sixth-grader would rebound in a wild match with former girls freestyle state finalist Carly Jox. Hodak found herself behind 5-4 at the 30-second intermission between the first and second periods. She came out of the break hot and scored 2 points early in the second period. She gave up a reversal, but was able to mitigate the damage and not surrender additional points before being reset to the neutral position. With the score knotted at 6-6, Jox picked up another 2 points, but was unable to score any additional points. Hodak scored 2 of her own with 34 seconds left to tie the score once again. She then scored a takedown and 2 exposure points with 18 seconds left before securing the fall at 3:46.

So far this spring, Hodak has placed first at the Clarion and Bishop McCort Freestyle state qualifier tournaments, second at the Edinboro Freestyle state qualifier, and fifth at the Bethel Park Freestyle state qualifier. Hodak also posted three technical falls, a pin and a win by forfeit while wrestling for team PA West at the Ultimate Club Duals in Harrisburg last weekend.