Welcome to the grind.

The anticipation of starting a new season and the fun of traveling to early tournaments has passed.

The excitement of the postseason individual tournaments is still six weeks away.

The skies are gray, the days are short and the big piles of snow and ice aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. There’s plenty of winter still ahead.

It’s basically practice, practice, dual, practice, practice, compete in all-day dual or tournament. Repeat.

Despite all that, the time is now to ramp up your training, add and polish technique and start to raise your level. Those who have the discipline and make the sacrifice to push through January will give themselves the best chance to succeed when it matters most in February and March. It’s up to coaches and team captains to keep the enthusiasm and energy level high and guide everyone forward.

In addition, we’ve reached the main league portion of the schedule. During the rest of January, the big Schuylkill League prizes will be awarded.

One of them will be all but settled tonight when Blue Mountain visits North Schuylkill for a Schuylkill League Division I showdown at Cesari-Hope Gymnasium. The Eagles (9-6, 1-0 D-I) defeated Panther Valley in their only league meet to date. Meanwhile, North Schuylkill (12-2, 2-0 D-I) has taken care of the Panthers and Tamaqua. Several interesting toss-up bouts and bonus points will decide the dual. This one should be worth the price of admission; gather some friends and come out to the meet.

Meanwhile, in Division II, Tri-Valley and defending champion Pine Grove have won their only division duals so far. They return to action tonight when Tri-Valley visits Schuylkill Haven and Pine Grove hosts Panther Valley in a non-league boys/girls doubleheader.

The big ones to watch in Division II are Pine Grove at Tri-Valley on Jan. 21 and Pine Grove at Mahanoy Area on Jan. 27.

Mark your calendars

In addition to the events listed above, the Schuylkill League Wrestling Championships are scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 17, at Martz Hall. Action will begin at 9 a.m., with the finals likely late in the afternoon.

Then, on Jan. 31, the District 11 Team Wrestling Championships — more commonly called the District Duals — will be held at Bethlehem Freedom High School. The top eight teams in each classification will qualify for the field. Entering tonight’s action, North Schuylkill (second), Tri-Valley (third), Pine Grove (sixth) and Mahanoy Area (seventh) are on track to get in. Saucon Valley leads the Class AA rankings, with Northwestern Lehigh fourth and Northern Lehigh eighth. Blue Mountain is 12th in Class 3A.

The District 11 Committee will seed the eight qualifiers in each classification. Wrestling will begin at 9 a.m. with the Class AA quarterfinals, followed by the Class 3A quarterfinals at 11 a.m. The Class AA semifinals are at 1 p.m., with the 3A semifinals at 2:30 p.m. The championship duals for both classes will begin at 6:30 p.m.

Look for much more on leagues and districts as those events approach.

This weekend, Mahanoy Area will travel to the Kovalchick Convention Center at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) for the 7th annual Mid-Winter Mayhem wrestling tournament. Approximately 60 teams will compete, including state powers such as Bishop McCort, Chestnut Ridge, Fort LeBoeuf, Bald Eagle Area, Thomas Jefferson, Northampton, Altoona, Cedar Cliff and more.

Milestone

Congratulations to Tri-Valley’s Jaxson Bruso for earning his 100th career victory at last Saturday’s Line Mountain Duals. Bruso joins Pottsville’s Terrell McFarland and Mahanoy Area’s Kyler Quick in the 100-win club this season.

Next in line is Tri-Valley’s Owen Wolfgang, who is up to 97 victories. Williams Valley’s Camron Green (95) and North Schuylkill’s Cadyn McGraw (91) and Gaige Mentusky (89) are on track as well. A few others could make it with big runs in the second half of the season.

Leveling up

We talked in this space about wrestlers and teams “leveling up” this season.

Nearing the midpoint of the season, we’ve seen some of that. North Schuylkill (12-2) and Tri-Valley (10-3) are already in double-digit wins, and individually, a healthy number of wrestlers captured tournament championships in the past few weeks.

The area produced six champions at the Jim Thorpe Christmas Tournament: Tamaqua’s Rylan Reitz; Mahanoy Area’s Arturo Reyes, Rory Dixon and Kyler Quick; North Schuylkill’s Gaige Mentusky and Pottsville’s Terrell McFarland. Pine Grove’s Zach Kurtz struck gold at the Governor Mifflin Holiday Tournament; Panther Valley’s Alisa Williams and Brenda Banks captured titles at the Baguba Brawl; and Pine Grove’s Geanna Lemke won a crown at the Matness at the MACC Tournament.

That’s 10 champions. Not too shabby. The area also had nine runners-up and a slew of placewinners at those recent tournaments. Let’s hope the league keeps trending in that direction.

Team rankings

Here are the top 5 teams in the T102sportsnow.com boys’ power poll:

Team                               W-L   Pvs

1t. North Schuylkill   12-2      2

1t. Tri-Valley                10-3      1

3. Blue Mountain         9-6      3

4. Pine Grove                 6-3      4

5. Mahanoy Area          4-3      5

Schuylkill League leaders

Records through matches of Jan. 6, as reported to t102sportsnow.com and/or trackwrestling. Minimum 4 matches, 4 matches above .500.

KEY: Blue Mountain (BM), Mahanoy Area (MA), North Schuylkill (NS), Panther Valley (PV), Pine Grove (PG), Pottsville (Po), Schuylkill Haven (SH), Tamaqua (Tam), Tri-Valley (TV), Upper Dauphin/Tri-Valley co-op (UDA), Williams Valley (WV)

BOYS

107 pounds

Gaige Mentusky (NS)…20-4

Owen Wolfgang (TV)…18-5

114 pounds

Rylan Reitz (Tam)………21-4

Cole Cook (Po)………20-6

Caden Fenstermacher (BM)…16-4

Evan Miernicki (NS)…12-7

121 pounds

Magnus Monger (WV)……15-9

Garett Leitzel (TV)..12-7

Stanley Padakowski (NS)…12-7

Chase Nagle (PG)………11-7

127 pounds

Arturo Reyes (MA)……..15-1

Cooper Leibold (BM)…14-9

Alex Deritis (NS)…10-2

133 pounds

Jaxson Bruso (TV)..19-6

Noah Leib (NS)…16-8

Kian Gill (TV)….10-6

139 pounds

Brock Holmes (NS)…19-7

Brody Schlier (Tam)….14-9

James Hoy (PG)……….14-6

145 pounds

Bode Gates (NS)…21-9

Bryce Bodenberg (BM)…17-4

Xzavion Tennis (WV)……..16-12

Aaron Osatchuck (PG)…15-2

Colby Townley (PG)…13-3

Landon Horoschak (TV)..13-8

Jack Krammes (SH)…8-2

152 pounds

Rory Dixon (MA)…16-0

Kaden Tavares (NS)…16-8

160 pounds

Owen Woll (BM)…21-3

Bryce Kile (NS)…16-8

Parker Hatter (TV)..9-5

172 pounds

Colin Crisswell (WV)…22-4

Hunter Updegrave (TV)..16-6

Izzy Miller (PG)………..13-8

189 pounds

Terrell McFarland (Po)….25-0

Max Masser (TV)….18-3

Stanley Boris (MA)……..13-7

215 pounds

Cadyn McGraw (NS)…21-5

Kyler Quick (MA)….17-0

Zach Kurtz (PG)………..15-3

285 pounds

Vaughn Helverson (BM)…17-9

Camron Green (WV)……16-6

Scout Frantz (PG)…14-5

Donovan Keeth (TV)…..14-7

Shawn Romberger (WV)……10-6

Triston Davis (SH)…7-3

 

GIRLS

100 pounds

Kiersen Echternach (PG)…..10-2

Madison Fetterolf (NS)….….6-1

Ka’ren-is Holmes (NS)….….5-0

106 pounds

None

112 pounds

None

118 pounds

Autumn Martin (PG)….….11-6

124 pounds

Samantha Eisenhauer (PG)..11-6

Jalissa Correa (Tam)….….6-0

130 pounds

Renee Eisenhauer (PG)…..11-5

Jada Dillard (UDA)….…….7-2

136 pounds

Taylor Bast (PG)…………….11-6

142 pounds

Geanna Lemke (PG)……….15-1

Maggie Hoffman-Long (UDA)…4-0

148 pounds

Jacelyn Henninger (UDA).6-1

155 pounds

Anelia Bennick (PV)……….11-5

170 pounds

Alisa Williams (PV)……….13-1

190 pounds

Rieleigh Purcell (PG)……….13-3

Chloe Ratcliffe (UDA)……….7-1

235 pounds

Brenda Banks (PV)…………13-0