By Jerry Clark

Published: Wednesday, March 13, 2013, 9:00 p.m.
Updated: Wednesday, March 13, 2013

In what will be a season for the ages for the Hampton wrestling program, Jake Hart may have capped off the best season ever.

Winning an Allegheny County Championship, capturing a WPIAL Championship and setting a new standard as the career wins leader for the Talbots (144) were all nice accomplishments, but there was one thing Hart wanted more than anything: a PIAA title.

This past weekend, Hart capped a dream season with a 6-1 win over Kiski Area's Matt McCutcheon.

“This is quite an accomplishment,” Hampton coach Joe Bursick said. “Jake is my first wrestler to win at states, and he did a great job.”

Hart credited this season to the benefit of hard work.

“I beat him earlier in the week, and used some of the same stuff,” Hart said. “This is my biggest accomplishment in wrestling no doubt. It has been since 1993 when a Hampton wrestler had a similar season.”

Bursick said there was some method to his madness. The right recipe of practice, tapering and changing things up while trying to stick with what works was important to the success.

“The key was to stay intense, avoid injury and peak at the right time,” Bursick said.

Bursick said it took a long time to get to this point. Building a youth program with the help of two former wrestlers and getting the program firing on all cylinders at all levels with all the athletes is important. With Hart's success, a new mark has been set for all who come after him, Bursick said.

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