HERSHEY - Caleb Clymer saved his best for last.

A dominant force throughout the season and his career, the Northwestern senior turned in a virtuoso performance Saturday at the PIAA Championships.

Clymer was masterful in his 160-pound final against Port Allegany’s Jacob Kallenborn, rolling to an 8-0 major decision victory – and his first state title.

“Maybe it was a little bit of the adrenaline going on but I was able to just focus on my match,” said Clymer, who was third a year ago and sixth as a sophomore. “My shots were nice and crisp. I had a nice misdirection right there to open it up, and I was able to have a nice mat return.

“So yeah, that was it. I was just focused on wrestling six hard minutes.”

Clymer (43-1) opened it up right away with a big takedown on Kallenborn (39-2) in the first period before adding a reversal midway through the second period to extend his lead to 4-0. Clymer padded his advantage with four points before the final buzzer in the third period. 

“It’s senior year, I had nothing to lose and nothing to hold back so I left it all on the mat. No regrets. I went out there and did what I needed to do. I wrestled like I’ve been saying: Six hard minutes. I went out there focused, and was prepared.

“I wanted to win, and I wanted to win by a lot. And that was another thing that helped me score a lot of points was my brothers. In past years, it was like, all right I’m gonna win by three, two points, it is what it is. I’ll take it. That’s when you lose the close matches, because they catch up with you … that’s all I was focused on was scoring points.”

Clymer outscored his opponents 20-1 in four matches at the state tournament.

But it was his performance in the final that was most impressive.

“I would say the finals match,” answered Clymer when asked of his best match. “I wrestled well in the first match (a 5-0 win). But in the finals match I put together riding it out on top, getting to my bar, getting to my tight-waist tilt.

“And then especially on my feet, getting to my misdirections and being crisp on that, which is what I’ve been working on this entire season. So for it to payoff in the last match for a state title, it’s definitely awesome.”

It’s a journey that Northwestern head coach Jim Moll has been happy to be apart of, and one he was proud to see end with a state championship.

“It was awesome,” said Moll. “I’m real happy for Caleb. He put in a ton of work. Not just through the season, but work at home with (brothers) Ben, Scotty and Bobby. He put a lot of time in to earn that gold medal.”

LAST TIME … Clymer is the first state champion from the Times News area since Jim Thorpe’s Kevan Gentile won the Class 2A 106-pound title in 2016 when he won a 7-1 decision over Southern Columbia's Jaret Lane. Northern Lehigh’s Ryan Farber was a runner-up last season.

BEST OF THE BEST … Jefferson Morgan’s Gavin Teasdale, the 126-pound champion, won the Outstanding Wrestler award for the 2A tournament. Teasdale became the 13th four-time PIAA champion with his victory. Southern Columbia’s Jerry Marks was honored as the PWCA 2A Coach of the Year prior to the event.

DISTRICT 11 PROUD … In addition to Clymer, Palisades junior Nathan Haubert and Tri Valley senior Danny Scheib also left Hershey with gold medals. Haubert defeated Kollin Myers (Boiling Springs) 9-3 for the 145-pound title. Scheib edged Bishop Mccoy (South Side Beaver) 3-2 for the 285-pound championship. Saucon Valley’s Josh Jones, a junior, lost a 2-0 decision to Teasdale, a Penn State commit, in the 126-pound final.