Submitted Photo Second from left, Sheffield’s Hayden Holden finishes second at D9 2A tourney to advance to this weekend’s Northwest Regionals at Sharon High School.

CLARION — Sheffield junior Hayden Holden just missed qualifying for regionals last year as a sophomore. He finished fifth at the District 9 2A Championships, but only the top four at each weight class advanced to regionals.

On Saturday, Holden reached the 133-pound championship match to make sure he qualified. Although Holden lost the title match by an 18-9 major decision to Clearfield’s Bryndin Chamberlain, his 2-1 weekend was another example of three successful seasons as a Wolverine.

Holden has 35 wins (35-8) in his junior season, including a second-period pin over Brookville’s Blake Porter (2:44) in the quarterfinals on Friday, and a 4-1 decision over Central Clarion’s Grayson Aaron to advance to the tournament final.

Over three seasons, Holden is 84-32 at Sheffield with 51 pins.

“After missing out on regionals last year and coming so close to making it out of districts — losing in the final minute of the blood round — I collected my thoughts and planned on what my goals were (this) year,” said Holden. “I looked at my record after my last match and realized that I had 49 wins after my 20-12 freshman year and then going 29-12 my sophomore year, knowing that the easiest road to 100 is averaging 25 wins a year, doing so well as a freshman is difficult. I knew that later in my career I’d have to pull off more wins than in my early seasons, and I had done just that while placing in each tournament I had wrestled in. Knowing that I’d be going into my junior year being just about halfway to a 100-win career, that’s what I have been trying to achieve in the long run throughout my high school wrestling career. After a long offseason of recovering from nagging injuries from wrestling, I knew that going into my junior year that, if I wanted to be certain to hit 100 wins, I would want to make it as easy as possible for myself. With that being said, I wanted to break a 30-win season and try to sneak into mid-80s so that way I’d only need 20 wins or so to achieve that goal of 100 wins.

“Wrestling this weekend in the District 9 tournament, I knew that being seeded the ‘2’ gives you the responsibility to make it to regionals and, not only that, but to also make the finals, which can be a lot of stress for one to overcome,” said Holden. “I tried to put the worries behind me and just wrestle my matches one at a time.”

Holden added: “After winning my first match with the Brookville kid, I knew that I’d have to face the difficult task of wrestling a familiar opponent that I had wrestled time and time again in my match against Greyson Aaron from Clarion. Matches with him and I had only got closer as they continued. I had pulled a win off against him in overtime earlier in the year and knew that it would only be closer at districts, so preparing for that match I studied all I knew about previous matches with him and that was just enough to sneak away with a 4-1 victory into the finals.

“(After) that (championship) loss, I’m a bit wiser, and I know that with a few adjustments that if there comes to be another matchup with him again, that it will be a one- or two-point match possibly in my favor. Moving forward in my transition into regionals (and) looking back at that match, I know that If I’d have won that, I would have gotten a banner to hang high in my school with my name on it, and it would forever hang above all of those who spectate or participate in any sport in the Ralph J. Santo gymnasium at the Sheffield Area Middle High School; it is saddening to know that I had come that close and fell just short of the last possible chance at putting my name on the wall at Sheffield, but then I remembered all the people that had watched me or wrestled along my side (and) all the great things that had been done throughout the years and the memories we had made along the way… My 100 wins may not come wearing the orange and black, but … the memories I made in the orange in black, on the mat, on the track, or on the field is the one and only thing that will remain with me and can never be taken away from me and will stay with me for the rest of my life. One last week of being a Wolverine, and one last competition in the orange and black, and I’ll have to make the most of it while it’s still here.”