WILLIAMSPORT - Blue Ridge junior Brice Woodruff has logged hours and hours on the mat and in the wrestling room. Saturday all of the blood sweat and tears paid off as he qualified for the PIAA state tournament with a thrilling ultimate tiebreaker victory.

Woodruff(121) entered the AA Northeast Regional as the number two seed, after capturing the gold medal last weekend at the District II Championships in Wilkes-Barre.

As the two seed Woodruff received a bye into the quarterfinals, where he defeated Towanda's Curtis Maynard 7-2. 

Woodruff lost by a second period technical fall 19-3 in his semifinal match to Aristotlis Bobotas of Montoursville. 

Dropping to the consolation semifinal, Woodruff faced a must win match against Mifflinburg's Jack Gramly.

Woodruff earned his trip to Hershey with a thrilling 2-1 ultimate tiebreaker victory, giving his coach and his dad each a huge hug in celebration.

"It feels really good. It's been a goal of mine since I've been a little kid. I've been working hard all off season and training just for this," Woodruff said about qualifying for states.

Woodruff would settle for a fourth place medal, losing by fall in the consolation final to Muncy's Gage Swank, time of fall 1:36.

Two other Raider grapplers gained valuable experience wrestling at regionals but failed to win a match. 

Aidan Tanzini(107) lost by technical fall 16-1 in 4:07 to Branden Eisenhower of Montoursville in the quarterfinals.

Dropping to the consolation quarterfinals, his tournament was ended by Williamson's Zander Wilson, who scored a 16-3 decision over the Blue Ridge freshman.

Sophomore Zachary Krupovich was up 7-4 early in his quarterfinal match with Shamokin's Chase Pensyl, however Pensyl would end up pinning Krupovich in 1:10.

In the consolation bracket Krupovich was defeated 12-7 by Carter Austin of Troy to end his solid sophomore campaign on the mats.

Blue Ridge head coach was pleased with the season his young wrestlers have had and is excited for the future. I asked coach about the time they put in and the excitement having a state qualifier brings to the program.

"Coaches are no different from wrestlers, we don't measure anything with time. We measure in hard work and with that being our focus the excitement comes from the challenge in the circle. If one competes the other watches, knowing that their hard work will pay off once they get in the circle. Giving the kids the opportunity to challenge themselves to be the best that they can be, that is where all the excitement is."

The PIAA AA Wrestling Championships will be held in Hershey March 6-8 at the Giant Center. Wrestling begins at 9:00 on Thursday.