HERSHEY, Pa. -- Throughout his high school career, Matthew Cunningham gradually worked his way up the PIAA Class AA place-winner ladder before finally breaking through with a championship.

Shady Side Academy teammate, Frank Martellotti, won his title early on -- as a freshman -- and finished among the PIAA's top three every year thereafter.

Both completed stellar high school careers and look forward to wrestling at Division I colleges.

Martellotti, a Penn State recruit who won PIAA gold in 2007, made his second appearance in a title match last week at Giant Center but lost, 4-3, to Boiling Springs' Joe Spisak at 130 pounds.

Cunningham, a four-time WPIAL champion who will wrestle at Cornell of the Ivy League next year, made a PIAA final for the second consecutive season and won, defeating Nathaniel Brown of Lewisburg, 2-1, at 171 pounds.

"I am kind of a doubter in general, but I wasn't going to let anything happen this year," Cunningham said. "I wanted to win, and I'm happy I did."

Cunningham (48-4) scored the only points he would need seconds into the match on a take-down and held on for the remaining 5 minutes and 57 seconds for the victory.

"He came hard ... and I did kind of a shrug," Cunningham said. "I knew he leans real heavy, so I was going to hit that move when he did it, and it worked."

Martellotti trailed, 3-1, late in his match but tied it with a take-down with about 25 seconds remaining in regulation, only to lose on an escape by Spisak with less than five seconds left.

He ends his career with a 168-21 record and as only the 16th four-time PIAA place-winner in WPIAL history. But that bit of history was of little consolation to him as he spoke on the Giant Center floor not long after his defeat.

"I try to be a perfectionist," Martellotti said. "Placing four times is great, being in the top three four years in row is where you want to be. But it's always disappointing to have your career end on a loss."

Three other Shady Side Academy wrestlers qualified for the PIAA championships, allowing the Indians to tie for second in the team standings at the individual championship.

Three-time WPIAL champion Geoff Alexander, a junior, lost in the 119-pound semifinals to Benton's Michael Rhone but went home with a bronze medal for third place, his best PIAA finish in three tries.

He went 4-1 with three pins for the tournament.

"I wrestled pretty tough this weekend," Alexander said. "I'm happy with how I wrestled. Things don't always work out the way you want them to. Against Rhone, I made one mistake ... It's just a building process. I'll just have to work for next year.

"Since my freshman year this is, by far, my best year. I wrestled the best kids this year up at Ironman and Powerade, and I finished well ... I think I'm a much better kid than I was my freshman and sophomore years. I'm confident in myself this year. Now I go out there thinking 'I'm going to win this match. I'm going to go out and go hard for six minutes.'"

Twins Phillip (112 pounds) and Anthony Elias (125), both juniors, went a combined 1-4.

North Allegheny's Andy Candiello was given a rude introduction to his first taste of wrestling at the PIAA championship level. But to his credit, Candiello rebounded from a blowout loss in his first match to win four of his next five matches and earn a fifth place.

Candiello, a 145-pound senior, entered the tournament as the No. 3 entrant from the Class AAA Southwest Region (WPIAL) and promptly lost, 23-9, to Nazareth's Ryan Krecker.

He was strong through the consolation bracket the rest of the way, however, capping his career with a pin against Billy Randt of West York in the fifth-place match.

"I wrestled hard," Candiello said. "I had that tough match and I had to wrestle back. After that first match I gathered my thoughts and just decided to put that behind me and go at it.

"My coaches helped out. They got me through it."

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