Jake Engle does not like to claim moral victories. However, Engle – Upper Perkiomen's interim wrestling coach – said Mike Modugno may have earned one in his loss at the District I West Class AAA tournament on Saturday.

        The coach lauded Modugno for his effort in the gold medal bout at 220-pounds on Saturday against Upper Darby's Brian Kennerly.

        Mongudo took the undefeated Kennerly, the top-ranked wrestler in the weight class, into the third period before getting pinned. 

        "Not many people have taken (Kennerly) past the second period," Engle said. "Mike wrestled great."

        Modugno and Jacob Folk (160 pounds) each finished second at the district tournament, held at Spring-Ford High School. Jared Kuhns (113) finished third, while Zach Rozanski (120) added a sixth place finish. 

        Modugno, Folk and Kuhns each qualified for this weekend's South East AAA Regional Tournament at Souderton.

        Modugno rolled through his initial bouts, posting a first-period fall against Ryan Rushton of Garnet Valley, before pinning Spring-Ford's Tyler LaRocca in the semifinals.

        In the finals, he was matched up against Kennerly, a returning state qualifier who had recorded seven consecutive falls. Modugno fought hard staying within 7-5 after two periods.

        But in the third period, Kennerly delivered a flurry of five take downs before catching Modugno in a cradle for the fall at 5:36.

        "Mike gave him a battle for a while," Engle said. "But you don't see that kind of speed and strength too often."

        Engle called the match a good learning experience for the wrestler. He said he expects Modugno to continue performing well during the post season. 

        "Mike is wrestling at the top of his game," Engle said. "I believe he will do extremely well next week and end up on the medal stand in Hershey."

        For the second straight week, Folk faced Ryan Resnick, a senior from Owen J. Roberts, in the 160-pound final. Saturday's result was similar as Resnick (35-2), a returning regional champion, scored a technical fall win 30 seconds into the third period.

        "He really beat me up," said Folk, who suffered an 11-4 loss to Resnick one week earlier.

        Folk, who defeated Garnet Valley's Robbie Peters (7-3) and Penncrest's David Stevens (1-0) to advance to the gold medal match, said the championship loss won't deter him from his goal of reaching the PIAA Championships. He welcomes another match against Resnick, hopefully in the regional final.

        "I just need to keep moving in the right direction," Folk said.

        Kuhns won four of his five bouts Saturday to advance. He rebounded from a 10-2 semifinal round loss to Boyertown's Matt Wilde with a second-period pin of Grant Rubin from Norristown and a 4-0 victory over Upper Darby's Marcus Mojica in the bronze medal match.

        If he faces Wilde this weekend, Kuhns said he needs to be more aggressive. On Saturday, the junior said he let Wilde dictate the tempo of their match. 

        "It was not what I was expecting," Kuhns said.

        According to Engle, Kuhns needs to change his style should the wrestler and Wilde meet for a third consecutive weekend.