William Edwards has shown himself to be one of the top wrestlers in the state. Edwards is a freshman wrestling at 114 pounds and is dominating in his first high school season. 

His first match of the weekend was against the 14th seed from Beaver County Christian, while Edwards was ranked as the third seed. After taking his opponent to his back, Edwards won 17-0, earning the technical fall. In the quarterfinals, Edwards fell to sixth-seeded Javeon Chambers of Highlands 1-5, knocking him into the consolation bracket.

After experiencing his first loss of the tournament, Edwards clawed his way through the consolation bracket, winning three in a row. Edwards went on to wrestle for 3rd and 4th place, facing Javeon Chambers again in a similar match, losing 0-6. He placed fourth in his weight class, which was enough to punch his ticket to the sweetest place in Pennsylvania.

Edwards speaks on his mindset going into regionals and now fighting for a state medal: “I’ve been wrestling for nine years, and it’s such a key part of my life, and nothing ever clicked but wrestling. It has given me so many opportunities and has molded me into the person I am today through hard work and dedication. My mindset going into regionals was pretty good, especially coming into it as a district champ, but I was still a little nervous. I wrestled my first match, and it all went away. My mindset going into states is just to embrace the moment, because I’ve been dreaming of wrestling on this stage ever since I was younger, watching Landon Bainey and all the other state wrestlers. I want to give it my all and wrestle every kid with all I’ve got.”

Prior to Edwards placing at regionals, he took home gold at the District VI Championships. Entering the tournament on March 5th with a record of 39-8, Edwards will wrestle a pigtail to enter the round of 16. Wrestling begins at 9:00 am, and results can be viewed on FloWrestling (or watch live with a subscription). Good luck, Will!