Joey Emborsky had been knocking on the door for the last three years. Then he finally got his invitation to the ball.

He didn’t want to dance with the princess or anything like that. He just wanted to go in and have a look around.

On Saturday at the Lancaster-Lebanon Wrestling Championships, Emborsky qualified for the finals of his weight class for the first time in four tries. Emborsky had reached the semifinals of the league tournament in each of the past three seasons, before defeating Cedar Crest’s Barry Breidegan in the semis at 145 pounds.

It seemed to matter very little that the Northern Lebanon senior fell to Solanco’s Dalton Groff, via a fall in the finals.

Emborsky had advanced to the semifinals with a 10-5 triumph over Connor Pavlik of Manheim Central in the quarterfinal round of his bracket. Emborsky opened his tournament with a resounding 15-1 victory over Warwick’s Jason Kempiniski.

Emborsky’s performance at the L-L meet upped his seasonal record to 14-5. Emborsky’s team points helped the Class AA Vikings to a third-place finish at the event, a showing that was higher than any Lebanon County wrestling squad which had come before them.

– Jeff Falk