Hazleton Area freshman wrestler Jimmy Hoffman is headed to the PIAA State Wrestling Championships on Thursday. At (39-6) the Cougar frosh placed third last week at the Northeast AAA Regional championships at Bethlehem Liberty high-school. Now the 9th grader faces defending state champion and #1 ranked wrestler in the state and the nation in Greater Latrobe sophomore and (39-0) Luke Pletcher in the preliminary round at Hershey on Thursday at 4pm. Hoffman along with hundreds of other wrestlers are already in Hershey this Wednesday for an open workout at the Giant Center. Newswatch 16 sports will be on hand for the 9am AA preliminary round with highlights to be seen on Newswatch 16 sports Thursday at 5:30pm and then at 6pm.
Along with Hoffman we have 16 other wrestlers from across all of Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania wrestling at the AAA level. In AA the number a little higher with 51 wrestlers making in to Hershey. The PIAA will crown 28 total champions-14 in AA and then 14 in AAA. Newswatch 16 sports will be on hand for the AA finals on Saturday afternoon beginning at 2pm.