HERSHEY - Kevan Gentile has shown physical toughness all year.

The Jim Thorpe junior has rarely been challenged this season, dominating opponents throughout the District 11 and Southeast Regional tournaments on his way to back-to-back Class AA titles.But on Friday morning, Gentile suffered what could have been a devastating loss to Chestnut Ridge's Aaron Burkett in the 106-pound quarterfinals of the PIAA Wrestling Championships.Instead, Gentile showed his resiliency, rebounding with consecutive wins in the consolation bracket to earn an opportunity to wrestle for third place later today.Gentile secured a spot in the third place match with a 5-3 win over Boiling Springs' Jalin Hankerson in his fifth round consolation match, an opponent he pinned to win the regional title less than a week ago."Kevan wanted him. He was very excited about it," said Jim Thorpe head coach Shawn Albert. "That's about as focused and determined as I've ever seen him, and he's been locked in all year."Gentile was in control after getting three back points early in the third to take a 3-0 lead. Gentile padded his advantage with a reversal, and survived a late scramble to hold on for the win."Tomorrow is all about Kevan and making history for this program," Albert said of Gentile's third place match against Benton's Alan Diltz.Prior to his 8-1 fourth round consolation win over Fort LeBoeuf's Abe Guariello, Gentile etched his name in the record books with his 100th career win, a 6-2 triumph over Bishop McDevitt's Luke Pipa in the third round."It means a lot," Gentile said of the accomplishment. "And getting it here means even more."Gentile wasn't the only one to make history, nor was he the only wrestler from the Times News area to secure a spot in the medal round.Lehighton's Connor Frey, Panther Valley's Rian Shubeck and Northern Lehigh's Matt Schmall will all be competing for seventh place later on today.Frey also earned his 100th career win with a 5-0 triumph over Juniata's Taylor Foster in a second round consolation match.After Frey defeated Greenville's Gage Gladysz 4-2 in his third round consolation bout to guarantee himself a medal, he acknowledged that the win over Foster became that much sweeter."Coming into the season, my two goals were getting my 100th win as a junior and getting a state medal," he said, "and I just achieved both in one day. It couldn't feel better."Frey's reward was a rematch with Pope John Paul II's Michael Collins in the fourth round, an opponent he defeated 2-1 in overtime of the regional semis last week.Despite pushing the pace for much of the match, Frey wasn't able to avoid a late Collins takedown in overtime that gave the Pope John Paul senior a 3-1 win.Frey will get Montoursville's Garrett Hoffman, who was the Northeast Regional champion, in the 182-pound seventh place match."I expect him to go out and wrestle tough and win," said Lehighton head coach Danny Williams. "I felt coming into this, that there wasn't any kid in this bracket that he couldn't beat, and I still feel that way."If you wrestle 10 times, the score could be reversed each time. This is another kid (Hoffman) that I feel if he wrestles to his potential for all five minutes, he's going to beat him."Shubeck rebounded from a quarterfinal loss to Elizabeth Forward's Luke Fournier, where he was pinned, to earn an impressive 3-1 overtime win over Canton's Tyler Cole in his third round consolation match at 195 pounds."My coaches just kept telling me to stay offensive," Shubeck said. "I kept trying to take shots and I was able to get in on one at the end."With the score tied at 1-1 after three periods, Shubeck was able to get in on Cole and complete the takedown for a 3-1 win.Like Frey and Gentile, Shubeck also faced a rematch from regionals in his fourth round consolation match against Eastern Yotk's Lucas Barshinger.Barshinger got a quick takedown in the first to take an early 2-0 lead.The Eastern York senior was able to get an escape in the third and held on for a 3-1 win.Shubeck will now face Schuylkill League foe and close friend Alek Hummel of North Schuylkill in the seventh place bout.Schmall earned his second one point win in as many bouts when he defeated Mount Union's Jake Boozel 1-0 in the third round of consolations at 132 pounds.But Freedom's Kody Komara simply overpowered the Northern Lehigh junior, however, in their fourth round consolation match.Komara turned a 1-0 lead into a 3-0 advantage after a takedown late in the second period.Schmall got an escape in the third, but Komara was simply too much, holding on for a 3-1 win.Despite the loss, Schmall will get a rematch against Brockway's Mason Lindenmuth, who beat him 7-0 in the first round, in the seventh place match."I definitely feel more prepared," Schmall said. "I didn't wrestle well at all in my first match…and I was just really nervous going into it."But in my next couple of matches, I picked it up a little bit and wrestled pretty well going into this match (against Komara). Now my mindset is just to wrestle to win."As Gentile, Frey, Shubeck and Schmall secured their opportunity to compete for a medal earlier on Friday, three other Times News area wrestlers saw their tournaments come to an end with losses in the third round of consolation matches.After battling back to earn an overtime victory in the second round of consolations, Northwestern's Jarret White was unable to duplicate such a performance in his next match, dropping a 6-0 decision to Triston Law of Forest Hills in the third round at 126 pounds.Clymer, who was a District 11 Class AA champion and a Southeast Regional runner-up at 138 pounds for the Tigers, also won his second round consolation match in overtime, an ultimate tiebreaker triumph over Smethport's Adam Shunk.But, much like White, Clymer was stifled in the third round against Montoursville's Keith Batkowski.Batkowski earned a takedown on the talented Northwestern freshman early in the first period, and Clymer was never able to recover, falling 3-1.Northern Lehigh's Ryan Farber, who was also a District 11 champion and a Southeast Regional runner-up at 145 pounds to Biglerville's Nate Newberry, earned a rematch of the regional final against the Biglerville junior in the third round consolation bracket.Farber was much closer than the 8-0 result from regionals, but Newberry still came out on top, grinding out a 1-0 win to eliminate Farber.Action will resume this morning for Class AA wrestlers with the Parade of Champions at 1:45 pm, followed by the finals, third, fifth and seventh place consolation matches at 2:00 pm.