State College’s Asher Cunningham wins 2nd PIAA state wrestling title; 7 other locals medal
State High wrestler Asher Cunningham tossed his headgear to his coaches and ruffled his own hair before shaking his opponent’s hand in Hershey’s Giant Center — and then had his hand raised as a PIAA state champion for the second and final time.
“This past week I was reflecting on it a little bit,” Cunningham said about his high school career. “It was a great season; it was really fun. It was a great high school career.”
Cunningham earned his second title Saturday, winning the 172-pound PIAA Class 3A Individual Wrestling Championship after winning at 160 pounds last season.
And the Penn State commit did so with relative ease, defeating Thomas Jefferson’s Bode Marlow by 12-6 decision in a match that he never trailed in. Even the only takedown he gave up didn’t cause him any issues, with Cunningham earning a reversal just 15 seconds later.
Cunningham’s second state title comes under a second head coach after winning last year’s with Ryan Cummins leading the program. The new coach, Jason Nickal — father of former Penn State wrestler Bo Nickal — was able to begin his State High coaching career with a state champion already on the roster.
And while it would be easy for a coach to try and make their own impression on how a talent like Cunningham competes, Nickal didn’t have to. He saw what he had and made sure he and his staff did everything they could to help.
“We just wanted to make sure that he’s staying healthy, he’s training hard when he needs to and he’s resting his body when he needs to,” NIckal said. “When you have a wrestler that high caliber, they really are in tune with their body and they’re in tune with their technique. So we just kind of had to be there as a support system.”
Nickal has helped Cunningham get to where he is now, but the young wrestler has helped his coach set the stage for what he wants his program to be.
The State High head coach said the two-time state champ has created a high standard for others throughout his program to follow.
“He’s setting that example for his teammates, for the junior high program, for the youth program,” Nickal said. “They see Asher out there winning on the big stage against nationally ranked opponents and winning back-to-back PIAA state titles. That gives a lot of these young kids goals to shoot for. They want to be like Asher.”
That mutually beneficial relationship should allow both to grow and move forward, even when Nickal is no longer directly responsible for Cunningham’s development. Cunningham leaves his coach and his high school program as a two-time PIAA champ, but with a much larger task in front of him.
The Little Lion will join Penn State wrestling next season, becoming part of a roster that is loaded with some of the most dominant talent in the country. It will help that his father, Casey Cunningham, has been an assistant with the Nittany Lions since 2009. Casey has helped many young wrestlers take steps forward and become elite, and he’s been there for his son to help do the same.
But the younger Cunningham has already begun to forge his own way forward.
“I feel like I’m kind of paving my own path and I’m really excited about that,” he said.
The future Nittany Lion doesn’t know what weight he’s going to wrestle at Penn State just yet — though 174 pounds would make sense given he wrestled at 172 pounds in high school — but he does know how he feels about what’s coming.
“I’m really excited for the opportunities I have coming at Penn State,” he said. “... I’m just really excited to get in the room and be with a bunch of guys that are a lot better than me so I can elevate my level and just keep improving. That’s what I’m really excited about.”
Cunningham wasn’t the only finalist from Centre County at states on Saturday night. Bald Eagle’s Caleb Close made the Class 2A final at 189 pounds, but fell by major decision, 11-1, to Faith Christian Academy’s Adam Waters.
Six other Centre County wrestlers finished as medalists — Bald Eagle’s Tanner Guenot (8th place, 121 pounds) and Caden Judice (4th place, 133 pounds); Penns Valley’s Max Dinges (3rd place, 114 pounds); Philipsburg-Osceola girls’ Charli Hunt (7th place, 136 pounds); Bellefonte’s Ezra Swisher (8th place, 152 pounds) and State High’s James Whitbred (6th place, 152 pounds).
This story was originally published March 8, 2025 at 9:45 PM.
