Youth and inexperience are usually ingredients that contribute to the failures of a sports teams.

However, for the Panther Valley wrestling squad, it looks like it's the youth of the Panthers program that's going to help them achieve many successes this season. The Panthers put forth an impressive showing, despite having six freshman in the starting lineup as they took to the mat for the first time in the annual Jim Thorpe Duals on Saturday. PV went 3-2 on the day, finishing third overall and had a bevy of wrestlers perform well, which is exactly what Head Coach Tim Robb wanted to see right out of the gate."Honestly, I was happy with how everybody wrestled this weekend," said Robb. "That might sound a little hard to believe, but every guy we put out there wasn't scared and they didn't care one bit about the size of the school we were matching up against. It was great to see that kind-of attitude early in the season. Our kids stuck to basics, were physical, and fundamental and it paid off."Panther Valley and Jim Thorpe were the only two AA schools at the duals, while everybody else was AAA. The Panthers three wins came against Pottstown, Dieruff, and Jim Thorpe, while its two losses came against Conestoga Valley and Cedar Cliff.As noted, PV had many wrestlers perform well on the day, including five that went 4-1. Hunter and Tanner Kennedy, Darren Goida, Hunter Davidyock, and Dylan Moyer all helped propel the Panthers to their third place finish. Gary Goodhile, Xander Kern, and Ali Capobianco also had solid outings, finishing 3-2."We started six freshman today and we had three that went 4-1," said Robb. "I think we have the perfect mixture between underclassmen and upperclassmen. These kids work hard every day and put a lot of time in out of season. Out younger kids are only going to get better and our older guys will be there to push them. It's just a great mix right now."Host Jim Thorpe, unfortunately didn't see the same type of success the Panthers did on the afternoon, going 0-4.Right now for the Olympians, it's a numbers issue as they're currently surrendering four forfeits every time they take to the mat."Unfortunately our numbers are down this year and we're giving up 24 points before the match even starts because of forfeits," said coach Shawn Albert. "Right now we're focusing on how we do head-to-head with the wrestlers that are competing. That's how were evaluating our team right now and if you look back at our head-to-head match-ups from Saturday we actually did pretty well. We'll get those spots filled in a week or two and then we can start looking at the box score, but right now it's unrealistic to look at things that way because of our numbers."Jim Thorpe also had wrestlers that put together solid efforts as well. Kevin Gentile and Antonio Madera went 4-0, while Robbie Geisinger went 3-1.The goal for the Olympians is to not worry about team wins and losses at the moment, but for each wrestler to progress every time out on the mat."The key for us on Saturday was that every wrestler progressed throughout the day and got better," said Albert. "That's what we're looking for out of our guys."