Four Bethlehem wrestlers advanced from last week's Northeast Regional 3A tournament to Hershey for tomorrow's opening round of the PIAA championships.

For the likes of Liberty's Grimaldi Gonzalez and Freedom's Evan Kauffman, they'll be marching to Hershey with gold medals around their neck.

The seniors cranked out titles at their respective weights in consecutive weeks and will also be joined by Liberty's Jake Gunning (220) and Freedom's Jake Young (170).

Gonzalez (120) pulled out more of a methodical victory over Northampton's Zach Valley this time around, compared to their district championship, as a 3-1 decision was good enough to give Gonzalez the regional crown for the second time in his career.

Kauffman (220) turned a 5-4 decision over Gunning in the district finals to a 12-5 major decision at regionals to give him his first regional title.

Gonzalez finds himself pitted atop the 120-pound bracket in the 3A championships for this weekend and his main goal is to come back home with a state title.

"This is what I've been working for all year and this was just another step in the process," Gonzalez said about winning regionals and advancing to states. "The experience I have now going to Hershey will help me. Winning regionals is a good way to get momentum heading into states and I'm looking to come home with a gold medal."

Gonzalez (33-2) opens with Dalton Macri of Cannon McMillan (41-6) once Thursday afternoon gets underway at the Giant Center.

Should he win, a potential bout with Southeast Regional champ, Ben Ross (41-1) of Pennridge, could be on the horizon.

Gonzalez doesn't pay too much attention to what everyone else on the state's platform is doing, rather focusing on what he has to do.

"I just have to go out and wrestle my way," he said. "Once you get worried about everyone else, you're not going to focus as well."

Kauffman's (35-1) trip to Hershey also has him seated atop the bracket and he's looking for a repeat trip to the semifinals from a year ago.

He opens with South Western's Aram Moffitt (30-5), but he could see defending state champion, Thomas Haines (34-1) of Solanco, in the semifinals.

Haines pinned Kauffman last year in the semis as he went on to place sixth at the weight.

Knocking off the proverbial favorite in Haines will be difficult, but he also can't look ahead of any opponent.

"Evan's wrestling really well right now and he has a lot of confidence," said Freedom head coach Brandon Hall. "Obviously, the Solanco kid is in the top half of the bracket and that's going to be tough, but he's just going to have to go out and wrestle and take it from there."

Gunning (30-7) makes his first trip to states and takes on Rodjecko Christian (23-5) of Westinghouse in his opener.

Young (28-7), who makes his debut as a sophomore, takes on Mechanicsburg's Joey Krulock (32-4) in the preliminaries.

All hopefuls look to bring home medals, but Hershey isn't so sweet to every competitor.

"I definitely feel like this is a different year for me," Gonzalez said. "It's basically up to me to come home with my goal of being a state champion."