Grappler's Grapevine

A total of eight wrestlers from THE TIMES NEWS area have traveled the Road to Hershey all the way to the Giant Center for this year's PIAA State Championships, which begin Thursday and run through Saturday night.

Those who survived the Southeast Class AA Regional at Wilson West Lawn High School included Northern Lehigh's Zane Heller (103), Ty Herzog (145) and Colin Hedash (171), as well as Lehighton's Anthony Farole (140), Northwestern's Bobby Clymer (152) and Tamaqua's Garth Lakitsky (215).

One of the challenges for District 11 wrestling coaches is keeping their teams focused in February.

After two grueling months of competition, leading up to the District 11 Duals, grapplers can experience a bit of a lull before the postseason kicks into high gear with the D-11 championships during February's final weekend.

Compounding the situation, District 11 does not compete in a Sectional tournament, which creates the gap of an extra week before the D-11 individual tournament.

Old Man Winter has condensed the second half of Pleasant Valley's Mountain Valley Conference schedule into eight days.

One thing hasn't changed, however; the MVC's marquee mat match-up, which is scheduled for Wednesday when the Bears travel to Stroudsburg.

Between them, Pleasant Valley and Stroudsburg have owned the conference wrestling crown under its current seven-team alignment. The Bears ran off six straight MVC titles between 2002-2008, while the Mountaineers have been atop the heap the last two seasons.

It is hard to overlook the name Mashack in the Tamaqua line-up this season.

The Blue Raiders feature three Mashack brothers, Kolby, Evan and Colin, and they have made their presence felt, combining for 51 wins to date.

Tamaqua is off to a 8-4 start, already surpassing its five-win total of last year, and the performance of the Mashacks has played a major role in that resurgence.