STAYING GOLDEN
HIGH SCHOOL WRESTLING
HERSHEY >> Tucker Hogan ascended to the top of the Giant Center podium for the second straight year and moved high up in the conversation of Berks County’s greatest wrestlers.
Hogan defeated Northern York’s Cole Bartram 5-2 Saturday to repeat as the Class 3A 189-pound champion at the PIAA Wrestling Championships.
Hogan capped his second straight perfect season with his fourth win in two years over Bartram, a future teammate at Lock Haven University.
“I’m going to miss high school wrestling,” Hogan said. “It was fun.”
Hogan capped a 49-0 campaign after going 44-0 last season. He stretched his winning streak to 95 since suffering a one-point loss in the state semifinals in 2022, when he finished third.
“I thought that I should have done things a little differently, but you can’t change the past,” Hogan said.
He finished his career with a 155-5 record and joined Gov. Mifflin graduate Jan Johnson as the only Berks County wrestlers to win two PIAA Class 3A titles.
Dean Houser, another Daniel Boone senior headed to Lock Haven in the fall, finished second at 127 after suffering a 5-1 loss to Northampton’s Trey Wagner. It was the third state medal for Houser, who finished 47-3 this season and 139-25 for his career.
Houser had defeated Wagner in last year’s state tournament but lost to him at the beginning of each of the last two seasons.
“Today I came up short,” Houser said. “I wasn’t able to hit any of my moves. He just wasn’t allowing me to work.”
Hogan also had trouble hitting his moves against Bartram, especially since they know each other’s wrestling styles so well. Hogan defeated Bartram by just two points in their District 3 championship match two weeks earlier.
“When you’re wrestling a good competitor like Bartram, it’s hard to beat him four times,” said Jim Hogan, Tucker’s father and the Daniel Boone coach. “Bartram’s a great wrestler. Anything could happen.”
But the result was the same as Tucker Hogan won in business-like fashion.
He scored a takedown to take a 2-0 lead in the first period. When Bartram tied the match with a reversal early in the second period, Tucker Hogan answered with a reversal for a 4-2 lead. He scored his last point with an escape to start the third.
“It doesn’t worry me,” Tucker Hogan said of his rematches with Bartram. “I know he’s tough. I’m glad it’s over now.”