Athens Advances Four To States; Wins Central Region Title
By: Tim Birney / March 1, 2026 / Photo: Chris Manning
MILTON, Pa. - Led by senior Hanna Rathbun, Athens advanced four wrestlers to the PIAA Championships, and won the PIAA Central Region Girls Wrestling team championships here Saturday at Milton High School.
Heading into this week, I thought we could have two, maybe three girls make it through to States," said Athens coach Donnie Barrett. "So to have four is something we didn’t really expect."
"Give credit to all of these kids," he noted. "They came to our room this week and had the best, hardest week of practice of the season.
"With everybody wrestling back through and winning those 3rd place matches that was huge for the momentum heading into next week," added Barrett.
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About the Author
Tim Birney
Tim Birney is the founder / owner of River Road Media Group. He was born and raised in the Valley, graduating from Waverly High School in 1984.
Birney earned an Associate's Degree in Journalism from SUNY Morrisville in 1986 and a Bachelor's Degree in Journalism / Public Relations from Utica College of Syracuse University in 1988. He began his newspaper career at The Daily Review in Towanda in 1989, before moving on to The Evening Times in 1995. He spent more than 10 years at the Times, the last four as Managing Editor.
River Road Media Group includes five sites in "The Sports Reports" family that cover 24 school districts in five counties: Valley Sports Report (launched Aug. 10, 2009), Tioga County (NY) Sports Report (Aug. 13, 2018), and Northern Tier Sports Report (Aug. 31, 2020); Northern Tier West Sports Report (March 15, 2021) Southern Tier Sports Report (Aug. 16, 2021).
