A faculty vs. student game to raise money for the class of 2025 brought a Franklin basketball icon back to the bench.

​Coach Bill Hager took his spot as the high school seniors coach giving the younger kids a chance to see the man whose name is synonymous with Knight hoops and for fans to see his familiar face once again in his former second home.

The game itself was mostly fun and for a few light-hearted digs at each other, but the real cause was to raise money to be used towards class trips and other events for the class of 2025. 

She normally runs the clock, but this year Paula Klinger is running the whole darn thing.

The 37th St. Patrick's Elementary Basketball Tournament may have had a COVID hiccup, and the elementary school may have been taken out from under them by the Erie Diocese, but when a meeting was held to discuss whether or not to continue the tradition it was an overwhelming "YES!!"

Over 20 former teachers, students and parents of former students stepped up to volunteer.

When you are put in the preliminary round, or pig-tail round or the wrestle-in round, the chances of ending up on the podium at the end of three days isn't likely. And when you win that first match to get into the sweet 16 you're still not expected to get there. And when you lose that match, most wrestlers expect to watch others get that medal put around their neck.

For Landon Caldwell of Saegertown that didn't seem to be a consideration. In fact, Caldwell's fifth-place finish might be one of the best stories of the entire Pennsylvania State Championship AA weekend in Hershey. He was the highest finisher of the seven local wrestlers we followed into day three of the tournament. (Editor's interjection here--we initially misread the brackets and missed Landon staying alive, our apologies.)

Caldwell had to wrestle seven matches. He won five. He only lost to one wrestler. Patrick Cutchember of Quaker Valley defeated him 13-3 and again 4-3. Caldwell then finished off the weekend with a pin in 1:43 against Brockway's Seth Stewart, who had made it to the semi-final round.

​The Saegertown senior ended the year with a 45-7 record.

Caldwell led a strong Saegertown effort. The team tied for 10th best in the state with 44 points. 

Editor's Note: Story updated to include Saegertown's Landon Caldwell at 189. 

Seven area wrestlers advanced to the third day of competition at the PIAA AA Wrestling Championships in Hershey, when hard work comes to a fruition with medals dangling from their necks.

Make no mistake, standing on the podium in Pennsylvania is quite an accomplishment. It is a hotbed for top college recruiters and they take notice of these athletes.

In a battle of North West Region 106 pounders, two wrestlers very familiar with each other from club wrestling in a rematch from a week back, Saegertown’s Carter Beck bested Cranberry’s Elijah Brosius 3-0 to move up in the consolation bracket. Beck later lost his next match against Cole Hubert of Saucon Valley and goes to the fifth-place match against Parker Sentipal of Burgettstown. Brosius wrestles for seventh place against Major Lewis of Trinity.

Hunter Gould of CASH will wrestle for the fifth-place spot on the podium in the 120-weight class. Gould fell to Coen Bainey of Bald Eagle Area in the consolation semis. He will go up against Chris Vargo of Bentworth.

Joshua Perrine of Saegertown also will be competing for fifth place but in the heavyweight (285) division. He advanced to the semifinal round of the consolations before losing to Emmanuel Ulrich of Mifflinburg.
He will face Leo Muzika of Faith Christian.

Hunter Robison of Saegertown will be wrestling for seventh place at 113. In the Round of 4 in the consolations, he lost to Branden Wentzel of Montoursville. Robison will face Jack Kazalas of Quarter Valley.

Also earning a spot in a seventh-place match is Jack Martinec of Cochranton. He competes in the 132-weight bracket. Martinec lost to Max Stein Faith Christian in the consolation Round of 4. ​He meets Kyle McCollum of Beth Center in their final match of the tournament. ​

Lastly, Saegertown's Landon Caldwell, who won his first round preliminary match to make it to the round of 16 where he lost putting him into the consolation rounds, went on to win four straight matches before falling for a second time in the tournament to Quaker Valley's Patrick Cutchmember. Today he wrestles Brockway's Seth Stewart for fifth place.

Joshua Perrine, Carter Beck and Hunter Robison of Saegertown, Jack Martinec of Cochranton, Hunter Gould of CASH, and Elijah Brosius of Cranberry all advanced to the quarter-finals of the 2022 PIAA Class AA State Championships.

​They resume Friday morning with the quarter-final matches.

A third place match usually isn't the premiere match of a tournament, and maybe this wasn't in terms of the PIAA North West Regionals, but we're Eight & 322 so when an Oil City kid wrestling for Cranberry squares off against a Rocky Grove kid wrestling for Franklin that is the match we get excited about.

​Sure it would've been sweeter if this was for first place, but when Cel Dailey stepped on the mat against Elijah Brosius, the two had been through hell just to make it to that match and both are headed to Hershey.

In the end freshman Brosius of Cranberry bested Franklin's sophomore Dailey 4-2. It was the third match of the day for the 106 pounders who earlier respectively lost to Saegertown's Carter Beck and Hickory's Louie Gill, who is last year's state champion.

​Regional qualifiers are list first through fourth place:
​
106: Louie Gill of Hickory, Carter Beck of Saegertown, Elijah Brosius of Cranberry and Cael Dailey of Franklin. 
​
113: Hunter Robison of Saegertown, Weston Pisarchick of Brockway, Jacob Cartley of Curwensville and Hunter Geibel of Commodore Perry.
​
120:  Cole Householder of Brookville, Hunter Gould of Conneaut Area, Chase Bell of Reynolds and Owen Hershelman of Saegertown. 

126: Mark Palmer of Brockway, JoJo Przybycien of Fort LeBoeuf,  Gunnar Gage of Cambridge Spring and Chase Weimer of Port Alleghany.
​
132: Owen Reinsel of Brookville, Jack Martinec of Cochranton, Wyatt Lazzar of Commodore Perry and Parker Pisarchick of Brockway.

138: Connor Pierce of Harbor Creek, Connor Saylor of Hickory, Cody Hamilton of Grove City and Brayden Kunselman of Brookville.
​
145: Carter Gill of Hickory, Story Buchanan of Girard, Reece Bechakas of Kane and Camren Klenke of Reynolds.

152:  Kane Kettering of Reynolds, Hunter Hohman of Grove City, Conner McChesney of Fort LeBoeuf and Gannon Jaquay of Eisenhower.
​
160: Aiden Zimmerman of Johnsonburg, Collin Hearn of Conneaut Area, Vito Gentile of Reynolds and Stetson Boozer of Cochranton.

172: Brock Covell of Titusville, Kaden Dennis of Johnsonburg, Jalen Wagner of Reynolds
Easton Belfiore of Brookville.
​
189: Cole Kerpinski of Greenville, Seth Stewart of Brockway, Jackson Zimmerman of Brookville and Landon Caldwell of Saegertown.
​
215: Hayden Linkerhof of Corry, Bryce Rafferty of Brookville, Abraham Keep of Girard, Cael Black of Eisenhower.
​
​285: Xavier Reyda of Corry, Josh Perrine of Saegertown, Lodge Nosko of Titusville and Mike Mazurek of Sharon.