Photos by Michael Goss

By Kenny Varner

HERSHEY – Saturday was medal day for the lone MIfflin County wrestler, Peyton Kearns as he had battled his  way through the intense competition at 285-pounds to be one of the selective few that survived the intense competition.

Still battling into his last day the Mifflin County heavyweight looked to end his high school career with a win and a medal.

Kearns, after being sidelined a year, took home a fifth place medal in his high school swan song.

In his opening match Saturday, Kearns muscled his way into a chance to have a chance for a third place placement as he went up against Shepherd Turk of Thomas Jefferson.

Turk took the lead on a takedown in the first.

Taking the down position, Kearns tried to cut the lead to two with an escape but to no avail as Kearns was pinned, sending him into battle for fifth place.

In the fifth place match, Kearns faced off against Gavin Grell of Northampton.

It was a rematch of Kearns’ first bout of the PIAAs where the Huskies Senior pulled out a thrilling 1-0 victory.

Like in their first meeting it was a physical battle.

After a first round stalemate, Kearns started in the down position and was able to muscle his way out of Grell’s grasp. He followed with a takedown using Grell’s momentum to help.

Grell scored an escape, making it a 4-1 contest going into the third.

From there, Grell escaped at the one minute mark. Kearns again forced Grell to the mat for a takedown and a 7-3 victory.

“I knew he was strong from the first match coming in. He wasn’t as big as me but he(Grell) was strong though. I knew I could do more with the strong kid. He wasn’t like very light, like moving and stuff,” said Kearns when asked if Grell’s own momentum helped Kearns to get the first takedown.  “He took that shot and he got in pretty deep so I used my weight against him. With my momentum and his momentum, I was bigger than him I was able to come out on top.”

I’m very proud of how things turned out this year. Last year I didn’t wrestle at all. This year I didn’t know what I was going to do. I was overweight there for a little bit. But I had the mindset that I wasn’t going to lose. Then I lost a couple down here but from not wrestling at all last year to making it down here and finishing 10th in the state, I think it’s pretty impressive. Now we just got to keep it rolling this summer.”

And win he did, ending his senior campaign with a fifth place finish and a jump start into the next phase of his wrestling career.