PIAA Wrestling: Pine Grove’s Kurtz places 8th in Class AA
Pine Grove's Zach Kurtz, left, after receiving his Class AA 215-pound eighth-place medal at the PIAA Wrestling Championships on March 7, 2026, at the Giant Center in Hershey. (Photo by Bob Lipsky)
HERSHEY — Zach Kurtz learned a lot about himself this weekend.
The Pine Grove junior 215-pounder learned that, yes, he can compete — and win — against the best in the state.
He learned how much of a grind — physically, mentally and emotionally — the three-day PIAA Wrestling Championships can be.
And he learned how much he needs to improve to come back next season and perform even better.
Kurtz’s run through his Class AA bracket ended with a 9-2 loss to Bishop McCort’s Marquez Gordon in a seventh-place bout Saturday at the Giant Center.
During the championship finals, Kurtz stepped onto the awards podium and accepted his eighth-place medal.
He joins his sister Eve Kurtz (eighth and sixth at states) with PIAA hardware.
Against Gordon, Kurtz struggled on bottom as Gordon used a four-point tilt, a reversal and a three-point tilt for his points.
Kurtz managed one reversal. He had a few opportunities for more points, including a single-leg shot in the first period, nearly getting back points on the reversal and locking up a cradle in the third period. Gordon, though, fended off those attempts to prevent Kurtz from scoring more.
“It’s a great new feeling,” Kurtz said. “I thought I could never even make it to this place. I didn’t even know if I was going to make it out of districts this year because it was a tough district for me. My goal here was to win one match. I won my first match and after that I kept things rolling.
“I’m sad that I lost to those two kids that I should have done better against, but it’s a long weekend,” Kurtz added. “I was up at 5 a.m. (Friday), and my last match started at 11 p.m. at night. So it’s a long day. I was practically dead. Today, I could barely wrestle. It’s a tiring weekend, but I thank God for bringing me this far.”
Kurtz’s postseason run included third at districts, fourth at regionals and eighth at states. He finished the season with a 41-12 record and improved his career mark to 86-38.
“I thought he did a great job,” Pine Grove coach Paul Frantz said. “We were hoping to maybe win a match, and to come here and medal, it’s a great thing he did. He wrestled really well. It’s great for the program.”
Kurtz is the first Pine Grove male wrestler to medal at states since Chas Aungst placed seventh at 152 in 2008.
Kurtz and the Cardinals’ coaches hope Kurtz’s achievement inspires other PGA wrestlers to put in the time and effort that Kurtz did during the offseason to reap these rewards.
To start, Kurtz still has one more year of high school left. He had been to the Giant Center before to watch his sister wrestle and for concerts, but he hadn’t stepped on the floor to compete before this week.
“I feel like this is good for next year,” Kurtz said. “I now know what to expect for next year when I have to wrestle in this three-day tournament. It’s a tough one. It’s tiring on you. It’s tiring on your body, so it’s good experience for me this year to learn how to push through it.”
Kurtz has learned “to push through it” in the classroom and in other extracurricular activities. In addition to his mat time, Kurtz challenges himself with Advanced Placement courses in English, Physics, Government, Chemistry and Statistics. He’s having fun playing Grandpa Joe in the school’s musical production of “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.”
Kurtz is part of a strong junior class at Pine Grove, as the Cardinals qualified six wrestlers for regionals this season. In addition to Kurtz, junior Isaiah Miller (33-16) placed sixth at 172 and sophomore Chase Nagle (28-17) took eighth at 121. Juniors Drew Hikes (25-16) at 133, Aaron Osatchuck (33-9) at 145 and Scout Frantz (36-10) at 285 also made it regionals. Junior James Hoy (26-14) at 139 is another junior contributor. Pine Grove also has a talented junior high class on the way.
“I know our team has a lot of potential, especially my (junior) class,” Kurtz said. “I think this is going to prove to kids that it’s possible. You can do it if you put your nose to the grindstone and push through it. You can do about anything you want to do.
“I wrestled all summer. I wrestled at clubs, at tournaments,” Kurtz added. “I went to Fargo (Freestyle and Greco-Roman nationals). A lot of my buddies now saw that I went this far and are asking me if they can come to these clubs with me. That makes me really happy seeing these kids want to do stuff in the offseason. I believe a lot of kids on my team that if they put in that extra work that they can be right beside me here.”
The Cardinals wear T-shirts that say, “Bring Back the Tradition.” Frantz hopes Kurtz’s state medal is a step in that direction.
“A bunch of kids came down to support him,” Frantz said. “They see it can be done now. So they should be right there for next year. Hopefully, it gives them the motivation to work hard in the offseason and come down and get their own (state medal).
“That’s the goal,” he added. “Next year the goal will be to get 3-4 down here.”
