HERSHEY - Jim Thorpe's Kevan Gentile had marked off almost all the boxes on his to-do list.

A second straight gold medal at the District 11 tournament? Check.Back-to-back Southeast Regional championships? Check.But one item was missing from his resume - a state title.One year after taking fourth at the PIAA Wrestling Championships, Gentile returned with a renewed sense of purpose and an unwavering will to win as a senior.Gentile capped a dominant tournament Saturday afternoon with a 7-1 decision over Southern Columbia's Jaret Lane in the Class AA 106-pound final to capture Jim Thorpe's first state championship."It's really hard to put into words how much this means to me," said Gentile, who also achieved his school record 142nd career victory with his triumph over Lane. "I've been working for this for my whole high school career, constantly pushing and doing offseason tournaments just to get better and finally it paid off."The win was especially gratifying for Jim Thorpe head coach Shawn Albert, who has watched Gentile grow into one of the most talented wrestlers in the state."I'm so proud of him right now," Albert said of Gentile. "He's accomplished every one of his goals - he's now the all-time wins leader here at Jim Thorpe and he's the first state champ in school history. He has set the tone for what we would really love to have here at Jim Thorpe."He's absolutely a role model. He's taught me a ton. Just the mindset that it takes to get to this level. He's much tougher than I am, that's for sure. He came in (to the finals) with a calm, cool and collected attitude and it showed out there. He has one focus, and that's to win."Gentile's title was one of many highlights for Times News wrestlers at the three-day tournament. Including Gentile, a total of six area athletes stood on the podium at Hershey's Giant Center.Lehighton's Connor Frey battled back to take third place at 195 pounds.Northern Lehigh's Ryan Farber and Northwestern's Caleb Clymer each took sixth at 160 and 145 pounds, respectively.Palmerton's Jared Mooney (182) and Tamaqua's Tanner McHugh (126) both placed eighth.A weekend to rememberAfter avenging last year's 8-7 quarterfinal loss to Chestnut Ridge's Aaron Burkett in the semifinals - and celebrating his birthday - on Friday, Gentile came back and finished the job Saturday.While Gentile and Burkett remained scoreless until the third period, Lane was put on his heels immediately in Saturday's final. Gentile took command of the match with a takedown in the first 30 seconds for a 2-0 lead and never looked back."I thought that gave me a good cushion, but I knew it wasn't good enough," said Gentile. "I knew (after last year's match against Burkett) I had to wrestle the full six minutes and had to keep pushing and keep trying to score until the very end."Trailing 3-0 following a Gentile escape, Lane had an opportunity to score off a reset with under one-minute to go in the second period before a stalemate was called.Gentile was never challenged the rest of the way, adding four more points in the third period to seal the win."Throughout the postseason, he's allowed one reversal on a kid," said Albert. "He's been extremely dominant. It was all business this weekend."His focus was to come here and win. That was his mindset. He has goals and he wants to achieve them."Battling backThough Frey came up short of his ultimate goal of winning a state title, the senior impressed by coming back to finish the tournament - and his high school career - with two straight victories following a tough loss in the semis."My coach told me the toughest kid in the bracket takes third, and I took that to heart and just grinded," said Frey, who took seventh last year at 182 pounds.Frey's opponent in his third place match was Northwest Regional champion Blake Reynolds of Greenville, who entered the tourney with a 43-0 record.Frey made an escape at the beginning of the third period hold up, claiming a 1-0 decision over Reynolds to take third."I knew he was notorious for being tough on top, and that's what everyone has been talking about all tournament, how you can't get out from bottom, and he's been able to ride all of his kids so far this tournament," said Frey. "It was 0-0 going into the second period and I got choice and I chose to differ because I didn't want to go down unless I absolutely had to, and I was able to ride him out on top in the second period."It was still scoreless going into the third period, and I had to go down. But that was the difference between taking third and fourth. I was able to get out and I was defensive the last minute. It couldn't feel better."Lehighton head coach Danny Williams has seen Frey rewrite the school's record books over the past four years. But the way Frey rebounded from Friday night's 3-1 loss to eventual runner-up Bill Bowlen of Jefferson-Morgan might be what stands out to Williams the most."The way that he bounced back after what really is a devastating loss - you have these goals and expectations and you put in this type of work and you're here and have a chance to be in the state finals, which is something you dream of," said Williams. "To be able to get himself together, move on and realize that I still have work to do and then go out and do it and wrestle tough and keep himself composed, I'm extremely proud of him."That really is the test of your character, when you can come back like that. That shows you his character, and obviously his is second-to-none."Fueling the fireWhile Frey and Gentile were the only two area wrestlers to win their matches in the medal round, Clymer, a sophomore, and Farber, McHugh and Mooney, all juniors, will have the opportunity to come back even stronger next season.After advancing to the semifinals with three straight impressive wins, Clymer showed discretion and foresight, electing not to wrestle his final three matches and ending the event with a sixth-place finish for his first-ever state medal.Despite the nearly debilitating pain caused by a muscle pulling off a growth plate on his hip, Clymer was not planning on forfeiting out of the tournament."Absolutely not," said Clymer, who forfeited his fifth place match to Seth Hogue of Reynolds. "I felt good coming into yesterday (Friday's semifinal against South Fayette's Mike Carr). After the (quarterfinal) match (a 7-4 decision over Hogue) it just hit me really bad."But it was definitely not the plan to get into the semis and forfeit out. I really thought I could be in the finals, but stuff happens and that's all part of wrestling."For Farber, a 1-0 decision loss to Austin Farbaugh of Penn Cambria is a result that will stick with him heading into the offseason."Losing those tough matches out here, that feeling will never leave me," he said. "It'll be there every day and just motivate me to work harder each day."With another year of experience under his belt, Northern Lehigh head coach Steve Hluschak expressed confidence that Farber can come back even better next season."We're happy with a state medal, that's what we come here for," he said. "Hopefully, as a junior, he can work on some of the things that he struggled with and some of the things that he saw out here and come back next year and try to win it."But we definitely want to improve on our finish. I know his goal and our goal is to work as hard as we can until we return here next year and try to get on top of that podium."McHugh also dropped a 1-0 decision, falling to Line Mountain's Brian Earlston in his seventh-place match.Earning a medal in his first appearance at the state tournament is something that will help propel McHugh into his senior year."It's going to help a lot," he said. "It's really going to inspire me to do better next year and put a lot more hard work in, even more than I already do now. It just shows me how much more I need to do to finish even higher on the podium, and possibly win a state championship."I just have to work harder and harder like I've been doing."After picking up a 7-3 decision over Penn Cambria's Jacob Driskel in the first round, Mooney lost the rematch, falling 6-0 in the seventh-place bout."He's progressed so much," Palmerton head coach Justin Petersen said of Mooney, who went 0-2 at last year's state tournament. "I think he has a lot to gain. He's got very good athletic ability, great build for the weight class that he's in and it shows; his length is awesome."Who knows? Last year at this time, we were happy to get here. I think that was a great experience for him. This year, we wanted a district championship and we checked that off; we wanted to be top-two at regionals and checked that off; and then we wanted to get out here and get a medal, and we checked that off as well. So everything he wanted, he's accomplished. Obviously, we wanted to move up a little bit, but we'll take it as it comes."