If there’s any Bethlehem Catholic wrestler heading into this week’s PIAA tournament with a ton of momentum, it’s Cole Handlovic.

The Hawks junior 152-pounder steamrolled his way to a Northeast Regional 3A title last weekend at Memorial Gymnasium and now has his sights on the ultimate prize of state championship this weekend in Hershey.

Handlovic scored an 11-3 major decision victory over Scranton’s Jeremiah Oakes in Saturday’s championship, capping off a weekend where he also registered a 21-6 technical fall over Bryce Molinaro of Hazleton in the quarters and a fall over Bangor’s Paulie Mastrogiovanni in 3:49 during the semifinal round.

Handlovic was the highlight of the Hawks weekend, as they won their ninth straight regional team title by holding off Nazareth by a 172-169.5 margin. The Hawks also saw Ryan Anderson win the 145 pound championship and are sending seven wrestlers to Hershey, but Handlovic might be the hottest one of them all.

“I’m pretty happy with my performances the past few weeks and this is what I’ve been working for my whole life,” said Handlovic, who is now 40-5 on the season. “I took sixth last year in Hershey and I was not happy with that. Now that I’ve been there I know what to expect, so it should be a bigger advantage for me heading there this year.”

Anderson got another rematch with Northampton’s Jagger Condomitti in the finals and held on for a 5-4 victory in another entertaining bout with the K-Kid.

Anderson had a 4-1 lead in the third period, but Condomitti scored an escape and then a takedown with 19 seconds left in the period to tie the bout.

With 16 seconds left on the clock and Anderson on bottom, he knew there was no way he was letting the bout head to overtime, as he picked up the winning escape with 10 seconds left for the decisive point.

“The last time I needed an escape to win a bout was my junior at the Super 32,” said Anderson (35-1). “I knew I was going to get out from bottom, but it still was scary. I knew I had to go out. I didn’t want to go to overtime.”

Anderson and Condomitti have now wrestled three times this year with Anderson winning the last two meetings at districts and regionals, but don’t be surprised if both are squaring off against each other in the PIAA finals.

After winning states last season, Anderson is aware of what it takes to get to the highest point of the podium, but he also knows that Condomitti can battle with him to the last second for that spot too.

“Honestly, he’s the best competition in the state, aside from Cameron Robinson (Council Rock North),” said Anderson. “I know Jagger is going to be tough and I got to stop being sloppy with him. I might have to add another move this week.”

The Hawks had five finalists at regionals, as Dante Frinzi (106), Kenny Herrmann (132) and Luca Frinzi (160) were back in title bouts, but couldn’t top their foes from the district finals.

Dante Frinzi fell to Easton’s Braxton Appello 4-3 and Herrmann has the arduous task of having Northampton’s Julian Chlebove in his weight, as the Northampton senior topped him 9-2. Luca Frinzi lost a 4-2 decision to Nazareth’s Connor Herceg.

The other Hawks that advanced to Hershey were Matt Mayer (113, third) and Jase Crouse (HWT, third).

Wrestling begins at 4 p.m. on Thursday afternoon at the Giant Center with the preliminaries and first round action.

Quarterfinal round heads to Friday afternoon at 2:15 p.m. with the semifinals in their usual 9 a.m. slot Saturday morning. The finals and consolation medal round takes place at 7 p.m. Saturday night.