When building a successful athletic program, early success is always a vital tool in helping establish a solid foundation at the varsity level, and that’s what’s been happening with Whitehall wrestling.

Competing in the highly-competitive Eastern Pennsylvania Conference, a league that routinely produces state champions, requires that teams have strong youth and junior high programs that will one day fill their varsity rosters.

One of the ways to stay competitive is to participate in tournaments that attract some of the best wrestlers in the east. For the past few years, a number of Whitehall wrestlers have made it all the way to the Middle Atlantic Wrestling Association’s Eastern National Wresting Championships.

This tourney features a number of weight classes in five divisions. Tyler Cunningham wrestled at 95 in the intermediate division, while Luke Thomas competed in the Junior division at 120.

All wrestlers go through a grueling process, beginning with 35 different district sites. If they make it out of that round, they advance to East Regional Championships which were held at Shawnee Middle School in Easton, on April 22-23.

The event culminated with the championships which were held May 6-7 at the Wilcomico Civic Center in Salisbury, Maryland where all four regions converged for the Eastern Championships, helping to celebrate MAWA’s 50th year.

Cunningham finished first in both the district and regional rounds, while Thomas was first at the district tourney and second at the regionals.

Both wrestlers qualified for the national tournament. Varsity head coach Tim Cunningham said that it marks the second time Thomas has made the trip to Salisbury, Md., site of the MAWA Eastern Championships, while Cunningham has been to the championships a handful of times.

Cunningham had to wrestle back after losing to eventual champ Levi Haines, the western region champ, in the quarterfinals. He won both his matches in the consolation bracket to claim third place.

Thomas won his opening match, but got bumped into the consolation bracket after losing in the quarterfinals, winning two more bouts to earn sixth place.

Last year Jaden Youwakim competed in the Eastern Championships, and that experience helped him have a successful varsity season, as he’ll become a strong building block for the upcoming season.

“It’s real satisfying seeing kids wrestle in the offseason,” said Cunningham. “These two guys went through two real tough tournaments to qualify for Nationals. Just making it to Nationals is an accomplishment in itself.”

Tim Cunningham always stresses that working hard during the spring and summer can pay dividends once winter sports roll around. He makes sure they have access to the weight room and the wrestling room so they can hit the mat running in December.

“I am hoping all the hard work and offseason wrestling these two guys do pays off when it matters in high school,” said Cunningham.