Brandon Hall is looking for growth with the Liberty wrestling program and the Hurricanes demonstrated some of that over the weekend with their performance at the Penn Manor Tournament in Millersville.

The Hurricanes finished second as a team with 152.5 points, coming behind team champion Council Rock North (190.5 points).

Junior 106-pounder Connor Werner was the lone Hurricane to come home with a gold medal, as he pinned Solanco’s Dominic Flatt in 3:34 to take home the crown.

Werner pinned three opponents in all and has ramped up his work ethic over the past month.

“He wants to be better. He pushes himself in the room much more than I saw during open room workouts in the fall,” said Hall. “We are still working to improve in certain areas and bring a more consistent and focused effort for an entire match. We are stressing the importance of diet, not only to him but to all of our wrestlers as it has a direct effect on performance in the room and in competition.”

Six wrestlers placed in all for Liberty, as Javien DeLeon (113, second); Jason Rezac (145, second); Kevin Hennessy (170, third); Zaire Mitchell (220, fourth) and Dustin Tocci (195, seventh) came home with hardware.

“Overall I think we performed well given where we are at this stage,” Hall said. “Our staff can see clear improvement from the new and inexperienced wrestlers. Tocci and Mitchell are great examples of that, placing seventh and fourth respectively. DeLeon wrestled very well as the seventh seed, making it to the finals as he knocked off the second and third seeds.”

The Hurricanes have a three match slate this week with a trip to Easton on Wednesday, followed by a home bout against Pleasant Valley on Thursday. They then travel to Parkland Saturday night.

With a second place finish at Penn Manor, Hall hopes the team can ride the momentum into this week.

“I think many people were surprised by our finish,” said Hall of the Penn Manor results. “It was certainly expressed to me by other coaches at the tournament. We still have a lot to improve upon for sure but it was positive and a reinforcement for the kids that they are doing the right things in room.”

Freedom (11-0) has started the season off with a bang, as they racked up another five dual meet victories over the weekend at the Towanda Duals.

The Patriots handled their competition with wins over Hanover Area, Danville, Jersey Shore, Williamson and Towanda.

Their closest match was a 55-21 win over Jersey Shore.

The Pates should coast through this week’s schedule too, as they host East Stroudsburg North on Wednesday and then bring in Central Catholic and Honesdale on Saturday.