![\"Faith](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/TMC-L-StatesDay3-050826-54-1.jpg\")
Faith Christian\u2019s Adam Waters celebrates his fourth PIAA wrestling championship after winning on Saturday in Hershey. (Nate Heckenberger photo)<\/p>\nHERSHEY \u2013 It didn\u2019t come any easier than the grinds of the killer practices and team runs over the years, but Faith Christian\u2019s Adam Waters and Bethlehem Catholic\u2019s Keanu Dillard made PIAA history by becoming the 15th and 16th wrestlers, respectively, to win four state titles.<\/p>\n
Waters needed a third-period takedown to beat Tyrone\u2019s Kyle Scott, 4-1, for Class 2A gold at 189 pounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just go out there with thoughts of getting to my offense and let it fly,\u201d Waters said. \u201cThat\u2019s all that\u2019s in my mind when I walk out there. I got to three of my shots, finished one. It\u2019s not what I usually do. It\u2019s not what I wanted to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I got it done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Waters is the only PIAA wrestler to win four state gold medals as an individual and with his team. Faith Christian won four consecutive state team tournament titles. He also is the first from District 1 to capture four state titles.<\/p>\n
Dillard needed a third-period rideout of Whitehall\u2019s returning state champion Willmont Kai to win 1-0 for 3A gold at 133. He is only the second District 11 wrestler to win four. Catasauqua\u2019s Matt Gerhard in 1984 was the first.<\/p>\n
\u201cWillmont is an excellent competitor and a state champ,\u201d Dillard said. \u201cBeing a four-timer is tough, obviously, because of injuries and setbacks. You have to constantly work to get better because everyone is trying one-up you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Waters started his run with a headlock of a returning state champion, Notre Dame-Green Pond\u2019s Holden Garcia, in the 2023 final as a freshman.<\/p>\n
Faith Christian\u2019s Adam Waters celebrates his fourth PIAA wrestling championship after winning on Saturday in Hershey. (Nate Heckenberger photo)<\/p>\n
The Ohio State commit finished off his career with 27 consecutive wins after injuring his knee at the Walsh Jesuit Ironman tournament, including 20 in a row leading up to the state final by either pin or technical fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an amazing moment to stand out in the middle of the mat and take in the Giant Center one more time,\u201d Waters said. \u201cLast time wearing my Faith Christian [singlet], last time jumping on coach Ben [Clymer].<\/p>\n
\u201cSo many amazing moments. Going and hugging my mom [Michele]. She was balling her eyes out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dillard\u2019s run started in January of his freshman year after a couple injuries delayed his anticipated debut against, you guessed it, Kai, who was a raw newcomer to the sport.<\/p>\n
Dillard beat Kai three times that year, including by fall in his varsity debut. The Golden Hawk\u2019s first year ended with a second win in an as many weeks over Abington Heights\u2019 Luke Sirianni in his first state final.<\/p>\n
He leaves Bethlehem Catholic for Lehigh with a 147-10 record, with champion match wins the last two weeks being 1-0 grinders over Kai. Dillard was voted the 3A outstanding wrestler award recipient.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Kai] is long and strong,\u201d Dillard said, \u201cand he knew I was trying to throw that leg in so I had to find other ways, had to get gritty, get a couple chops and mat returns. I found a way to get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ironically, Kai finishes with 148 career wins, most in Whitehall history<\/p>\n
Senior writer Tom Housenick can be reached at thousenick@mcall.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HERSHEY \u2013 It didn\u2019t come any easier than the grinds of the killer practices and team runs over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,305,25331,726,432],"class_list":["post-132652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-high-school-sports","tag-high-school-wrestling","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}