It's always nice to get off to a strong start.

Opening the season with a win or a solid performance can give a team or an individual confidence and can help build momentum.The Panther Valley wrestling team was able to do just that on Saturday at the annual Jim Thorpe Duals.The Panthers went 4-1 on the day to take second place in the tournament with their lone loss coming to Cedar Cliff. PV defeated Jim Thorpe, Conestoga Valley, Dieruff, and Wyoming Valley West."It turned out to be a really good day for us," said Panther head coach Tim Robb. "Everybody showed some good things and we had some kids that wrestled really well. It's always good to start off strong, it builds confidence, which is always really important in wrestling. The kids were really excited about the day."The Panthers had seven wrestlers that went 3-2 or better on the day. Sophomore brothers Hunter (145) and Tanner (138) Kennedy went 5-0, while Dylan Moyer (195) who hustled to the duals from SATs earlier in the morning, went 3-0.Ali Capobianco (152) finished 4-1, while Darren Goida (132), Xander Kern (170), Justin Rodriguez (220), and Aaron Eidem (285) all went 3-2 for the Panthers.It was a strong performance for a team that finished third at the duals in 2014, improving on that mark with a second-place finish."We only have three seniors, but they did a great job of leading throughout the day and keeping everyone in line," said Robb. "I think we have a really good mix there. We do have a lot of young wrestlers on this team and I don't think you can be successful if you don't have good leadership at the top. I was happy with everything we accomplished this weekend."For host Jim Thorpe, some lineup issues challenged the Olympians on the afternoon. The result was a winless team performance, but 113-pounder Kevan Gentile, a fourth place state medalist from a season ago, didn't disappoint.Gentile went 5-0 on the day with three pins, a major decision, and a technical fall. JT's Ryan O'Rourke turned in a solid effort as well with a 3-2 record."We had five guys out for today, which hurt us, but our kids still battled and everyone walked away with a win on the day," said Thorpe head coach Shawn Albert. "It was good for our guys to face some really solid competition early on and I think we learned a lot from the day."Even though the Olympians didn't have a winning day, there's plenty of season left to get better and improve as they get healthier."The goal for us is to get healthy, which we should basically be by this week," said Albert. "Once we get healthy and have a full lineup I think we can have some success. I think we're a talented group. I'm excited to see what we can do when fully healthy."