Dalton Wenner looks for the takedown during a match this season. (Photo by Richard Sayer)

Dalton and dad and coach Dustin pose with the medal.

As it turns out, Cranberry's Dalton Wenner faced a tough draw: he got the eventual state champion at his weight, 127, in the quarterfinals of the PIAA 3A wrestling tournament.

Keanu Dillard comes from the most prolific program in the state right now -- the Bethlehem Catholic Golden Hawks, 3A dual meet champions who also claimed the team title at states.

Dillard won the match, 7-0, sending Wenner to the losers' bracket, which he fought through to earn the seventh-place medal -- the third straight of his career. The first two came in 2A before the Cranberry/Oil City co-op was moved up to 3A this season.

Wenner was matched against Noah Fenner of Easton, and beat him by tech fall in the blood round to clinch the medal. Now it was a matter of which one -- third through eighth. 

He dropped a 3-2 decision to Trinity's Dominick Canale  -- a surprise and, pardon the cliche, probably a tough pill to swallow since Wenner majored Canale, 10-2, at the West regional last week.

But Wenner rebounded again -- this time to blank Abington Heights sophomore Mason Whitney, 4-0, for seventh.

Meanwhile, Canale would go on to finish fifth and Butler's Santino Sloboda, who beat Wenner for the West regional title last week, wound up with the third place medal. 

Before taking on Wenner, Whitney was beaten by Sloboda, 7-1. Wenner lost to him in the West finals, 10-0. 

Dillard's title came over another northeastern Pa. wrestler, Gabriel Ballard of Northampton, 8-2. The state crown was the third for Dillard, a junior who previously won at 107 and 121. His career record now stand at 100-7.

Districts 9 and 10 (virtually all of northwestern Pa.) had only three state medalists (no champs) -- Wenner and two others from DuBois. District 10 had 14 medalists in 2A, but zero state champs. Grove City's Hudson Hohman, a junior 152-pounder, reached the finals where he faced the No. 1 ranked wrestler in the country -- Bo Bassett of Johnstown Bishop McCort, an Iowa commit. Hohman was pinned in the first period.

Wenner, also a  junior, finished the season with a 42-8 record. The Clarion commit, according to PA-wrestling.com, is 115-20 for his career. 

Franklin's Gary Kiselka, junior 215-pounder, made his state tournament debut. He didn't place but he posted a 2-2 record in 2A. He was 35-12 this season, 79-16 for his career.