Photo by Tim Weight
By Dom Reed

ALTOONA –  Saturday, the State College wrestlers battled at the District 6 AAA tournament at Altoona Area High School. The Little Lions were looking to add on to a successful season approaching postseason with high hopes.

The Little Lions had some stellar performances today. Asher Cunningham was a big part in the team’s success.

Cunningham entered districts posting an impressive 25-3 record and the veteran wrestler is coming off a season last year where his team saw him go deep into states.

Cunningham won his first match by tech fall 19-2 was focused on getting better and looking on to the next match. Cunningham would continue his stellar performances as he would go on to win his next match. He ended the night on the podium bringing home gold after earning a tech fall 18-3 over Bellefonte’s Jackson Long. Cunningham in his first match got the win over Mifflin County’s Reese Christine.

“I think I wrestled pretty good,” said Asher Cunningham. “I’m excited about wrestling in two weeks at regionals where I’ll  face off agains the number two kid in the state so that’ll be a good match. I am really excited about getting better.”

State College sophomore James Whitbred has also had a sensational day, as he seemingly got better as the day and night went on.

Whitbred opened districts with a bye and he would then go on to earn two major decision earning himself a gold medal.

“We can always learn what we need to improve on,” said James Whitbred. Whether its top, bottom or neutral or  defense or offense and its great to know that we have a week off in between so you can always like work on stuff they need to work on. It’s a great opportunity to do it.”

State College got solid efforts from Nick Berrena as he would place third in districts. Teammate Jonathan Coates earned a fifth place spot while Jon Whitbred would also take home the fifth place spot. He bounced back after falling short. Khael Davis for the Little Lions would also bring home gold with stellar performances.          

State College performed really well they fought hard the Little Lions had guys compete well in the consolations as well.

“We had Kaehl Davis,James Whitbred and Asher Cunningham all bring home the gold. They’re  kind of the leaders for our team,” said Jason Nickal. Kael really started things off right getting that first by picking up that last second takedown and getting first place. Then we just kind of rolled from there. We got off to a little bit of a slow start but we won nine of our 12 matches and that kind of what we got to build on is the momentum that we got at the end of the day when the matches counted. Most of our kids really stepped up and performed well so it was a little bit up and down but we finished off the time on a up note so I’m  pretty happy with our overall performance.

State College will have a week off to get ready for Regionals in two weeks as  the Little Lions look to build on a successful season under coach Jason Nickal and staff. The team was led by Asher Cunningham and so may others on this team.