Wrapping up the 2022-2023 Hershey High School Varsity Wrestling Season
January 31, 2023
The Hershey Wrestling team has had a decent season finishing 4-4. Next up for some of the wrestlers are sections, District III, and PIAA state tournaments.
The Trojans won against CD East, Palmyra, Northern York, and Pequea Valley. They lost to LD, Carlisle, Mechanicsburg and Red Land.
First, they go to the Section 2 Tournament at Hempfield. The Section 2 Tournament is the first round of the individual postseason. Wrestlers need to place top 4 in their bracket to advance to districts/regionals. All of Hershey’s starters from each weight class qualified for sectionals.
Next, they go to the District 3 Tournament at Spring Grove February 25th and 26th. The wrestlers that placed top 4 in districts advance to states.
Hershey as a team did not qualify for the PIAA State Tournaments at the Giant Center in March, but hopes to send a few wrestlers.
Head Coach Brandon Bucher said, “the season has been a rollercoaster. The kids are doing fine, but everyone’s pretty messed up.”
Hershey had to deal with adversity throughout the season. Despite being plagued with injuries like sprained elbows and concussions and having to adjust the line up due to wrestlers being out for non-wrestling infractions, progress is being made, according to Bucher.
Several wrestlers distinguished themselves: Christian Burd,Tristan Bingeman, and David Essis.
Freshman Chritsian Burd (172 lbs) had the highest winning season percentage on the team with 82%, going 18-4.
Senior Tristian Bingeman (189 lbs) finished the season with a 74% winning season percentage. He has 55 wins and 37 losses over his Hershey career.
Junior David Essis (215 lbs) had the 3rd highest winning season percentage of 67%. Thus far in his career Eissis had a total of 18 wins and 23 loses.
According to Bucher, the upper weights stood out the most. “They keep us in meets,” said Bucher. “The lower and middle weights need to step up and win matches consistently, not periodically.”
With the next tournaments coming up Bucher has high expectations, and wants to see everyone putting in the effort to win the upcoming meets.
A couple things Bucher wishes would change throughout the future seasons are, kids attending more club wrestling, working harder in the room, being better practice partners, and pushing each other more during practices.
The team needs to work on their bottom positioning for their tournaments coming up. The wrestlers also need to work on their pre and post match warm-ups, pre and post match meals, and what each player eats after weigh-ins.
The chemistry of the team has gotten better, but with that it gets better every year. With the season coming to an end soon, Bucher is watching the middle schoolers.
Bucher said, “There won’t be as much of a shock,” for the middle schoolers to come up next year. With that being said, there will be high expectations set for middle schoolers.
One of the meets that they wish they would have back is Mechanicsburg, which they lost by 11 points. Currently, Lower Dauphin is Hershey’s best opponent so far, however Bucher thinks the whole league is pretty equal.
The team heads to Hempfield on February 18th for the Section 2 Tournament.
