Zach Ortman may have appeared to be an underdog on paper heading into the PIAA 3A state wrestling tournament at Hershey’s Giant Center over the weekend, but Ortman knew he belonged with the best.

Ortman finished in fourth place following a 10-2 defeat to Upper Darby’s Colin Cronin in the third-place bout of the 138-pound category, but it was a three-day performance that personified Ortman’s work ethic.

“I always expect that whenever I put my mind to something I can achieve anything,” said Ortman. “My goal was to come out here and place and I knew if I wrestled my hardest I could beat anyone.”

The one wrestler Ortman hasn’t been able to beat this year, however, was Northampton’s Dan Moran, who beat him in the district and regional semifinals.

That theme continued with Saturday’s 20-4 technical fall defeat to Moran in the state semifinals, as District 11 had three of the four state semifinalists. Nazareth’s Sammy Sasso went on to beat Moran 8-0 for the state championship.

Battling throughout the postseason against the likes of Moran prepared Ortman for the run he had in Hershey, which included an 8-3 upset of Hempfield’s Luke Kemerer in the first round, catapulting him to make a run to the semifinals.

“That was a pretty big win and I think it showed that I’m as good as anyone and that I deserved to be out here,” Ortman said. “I may have been third out of our region, but I knew our region was tough. I looked at it as an opportunity to just go prove myself.”

With his first state medal in the books, Ortman will always remember the weekend he had in Hershey and will certainly be shooting for more his senior year.

“I’m going to cherish this,” he said. “Not many people come out here and get a medal. It comes with a lot of hard work and I’ve been working since the beginning of last summer and I’m just going to keep looking for more.”

Parkland’s Nate Feyrer (220) went 1-2 in the tournament and was eliminated on day two of the tournament following a 9-2 defeat to Dallastown’s Bryce Shields in the second round of consolations.

Feyrer started the tournament off with a 5-3 decision over Blake Bizousky of Punxsutawney before dropping his next two bouts.