Everythingâ??s new

Ten days ago, Andy Schutz set a school-record with his third consecutive District 2 championship.

Three days ago, the Wyoming Area junior became the first Warrior to qualify for the PIAA Championships in more than 10 years.

Beginning Thursday, he will try to become just the fifth grappler in school history to earn a state medal.

As a freshman, Schutz placed fourth at the Class 2A Northeast Regional and last year, he finished one win shy of reaching the medal bout. But this year, he finally got over that hump. He enters the state tournament with a 30-3 record this season and 96 career wins.

"That was the happiest I ever was to take third-place," Schutz said about his 4-3 victory over Bucktail freshman Demetri Probst on Saturday night. "It's never easy down there, but Hershey was the overall goal."

Helping him along in the process is first-year head coach Steve Mytych, who was a four-time state qualifier and two-time state medalist, taking fourth as a junior and eighth as a sophomore. All four years, he won at least one match at the PIAA Championships. After that run, he was the first in Drexel history to earn four NCAA Championship bids.

Assistant coach Joe Rovelli won a state title for Meyers in 2004, was state runner-up in 2003 and took eighth in 2002. He was a four-time state qualifier before a solid college career at Hofstra, where he was a four-time national qualifier.

Both have played an important role for the 132-pounder this season.

"They just help on everything, with my whole technique and everything," Schutz added. "My whole wrestling game has just improved so much. These guys are Division I wrestlers so they know it all to say the least."

Only five other Wyoming Area wrestlers have won two district championships, with the most recent being in 1995 and 1996 by Don Morgan, who won gold medals at 112 and 125, respectively. Schutz won his first two district golds at 119.

He opens the state tournament against Brennan Shields, a 35-8 junior from District 6 South Huntingdon.

"It's a tough bracket," Schutz said. "It's brutal. They all are at states, but we're just going to work hard and see what we can do this week."

Of his three losses this season, two have come to Lake-Lehman's Austin Harry, who claimed his first regional title last weekend as a sophomore at 126. Harry is 37-1 this season with that lone loss coming at the hands of Schutz in the Wyoming Valley Conference Tournament.

Over the last two years, Harry and Schutz have squared off seven times with Schutz holding a 5-2 advantage.

"We both push each other and it's good to get matches like that, the wins and losses they matter, but it's good to get the experience," the Warrior said.