"It's still an awesome feeling," Warwick's Antonio Giorgio declared to a pair of visitors in the Zamboni tunnel of the Hersheypark Arena, leaving no doubt that winning a District Three championship never gets old.

Even when it's the third time you've accomplished the fete.

Solanco's Dan Neff and Pequea Valley's Mitch Ball, their first district gold hanging from their necks, would concur.

Giorgio, Neff and Ball brought the gold home Saturday night: Neff victorious at 130 pounds and Giorgio at 189 in Class AAA; Ball the best at 160 in Class AA.

Ball bettered Juniata's Dylan Treaster in overtime, 6-1, to become the Braves first district champion since Dave Finger (171) won in 2000.

Neff neutralized Central Dauphin's Tyler Buckman 7-5 to become Solanco's first district champion since Brian Caldwell (152) won in 2001.

He also became the third Class AAA champion in the Neff family, sharing the honor with his father, Dan, who claimed gold at 138 in 1984, and his uncle, Keith, the champion at 105 in 1986. Both were Penn Manor grads.

Giorgio defeated Dallastown's Phil Sprenkle 10-4 — more on that later — to become Warwick's third three-time district champion, joining Jeff Rosenberger (1976-77-79) and Jeff Martin (1989-90-91).

"It means a lot," said the Warriors' senior, expressing a hope that that select company would serve as an inspiration to future Warriors.

Future Warriors who may note that this victory was unlike most Giorgio victories this year, thus far.

For the first time in 50 weeks, Giorgio was pressed to rally from behind as Sprenkle, a solid 189-pounder from a storied program, as well as a representative of a storied York wrestling family, had the early advantage.

He took Giorgio down and answered a Giorgio reversal in a flurried first period that ended 4-to-3 Sprenkle.

"The first thing that popped into my head was Spencer Myers," said Giorgio, recounting Selinsgrove's 215-pounder who knocked him out of the 2009 state semifinals.

"I started getting frantic. I'm thinking, 'Tony, you can't do this to yourself!' So, I tried to calm down."

Nothing soothes jangled nerves like scoring a 3-point tilt, which Giorgio did 18 seconds into the second period.

Working with a 6-4 lead now, Giorgio picked up a stalling point and got another point when, after Giorgio chose bottom to begin the third period, Sprenkle decided he wanted no part of being on the mat and opted to go neutral.

"Right at the beginning (of the match), I almost had that Petersen (roll)," said Giorgio. "He obviously didn't want to get into that again."

And the scorers table obviously missed that bit of interaction as Giorgio was never awarded the point.

So when Giorgio scored a takedown with 1:35 left, the scoreboard showed a 9-4 advantage instead of 10-4. Whatever.

What mattered was Giorgio appears to have discarded the last of the rust remaining from his long, early-season layoff.

While Giorgio was recuperating from ankle woes, Neff became the face of L-L League wrestling.

But there was a face in front of Neff that drove him for 52 weeks.

Buckman's face.

In the 125-pound semifinals of last year's district tourney, Buckman out-lasted Neff in a donnybrook, 14-13, before going on to win the title.

It was inevitable they would meet again. Saturday night the inevitable became reality.

"I trained all summer for it," the Golden Mules' junior offered. "I wanted it pretty bad."

And there it was Saturday night, the opportunity for redemption.

Buckman didn't make it easy, scoring the initial takedown on a single leg to a sit-back tilt.

"I was panicking a little bit there," Neff said, "I knew that was coming, but I just couldn't stop it."

He did stop the tilt, but the moment reinforced what he knew going in: "If I was on bottom I had to seal out and come right to my feet."

Which is where he wanted to be anyway. "Everything was on my feet," he said. "That was my gameplan."

A plan he executed to perfection, scoring three takedowns the rest of the way to win the title.

"District champ," he mused. "That's a big deal."

A big deal, as well, for Ball as it was his first ever tournament championship as a high school wrestler.

Pequea Valley's sophomore, who was the Outstanding Wrestler of the Elizabethtown Tournament as an 8th-grader, learned on the job as a freshman starter for the Braves varsity last year, failing to place at districts after a third-place finish in sectionals.

So when he once again placed third this year at sectionals, he slipped under the district radar.

But he was there.

"At Sectionals," he said, "I saw how close I was to being in the finals (losing 2-1 to the eventual runner-up). I thought I had a pretty good shot."

He took his shot, beating a pair of sectional silver medalists as well as the champion from his section, Cody Breiner.

Breiner had taken a 7-5 decision from Ball 14 months ago, but this time it was all Ball as he pinned Breiner in 3:41.

That earned him a finals appointment with Treaster, another section champion, as if that mattered.

The best Treaster could do was defend good takedown shots from Ball as the match moved to overtime tied at 1-1.

And all that defending was taking its toll on Treaster who was clearly tiring.

Ball, not so much.

"I knew I could last long," he said, confident in his cardio reserves, even after seven minutes of work. "I knew I wasn't going to get tired in the final periods."

He rode out Treaster in the first of two 30-second OTs, then took his bottom position in the second.

It had taken him 23 seconds to escape when Treaster was fresh, back in the second period. Now?

Treaster found a reserve and rode Ball tough as the precious seconds ticked down.

Then Ball gained the slightest of openings as Treaster slipped high.

"I didn't give up," he said. "I just had to come out."

 Incrementally Ball squeezed out the back door, popping free for a reversal with six seconds left.

And putting Treaster on his back for three nearfall points to ice the championship cake.

"I'm feeling good," he would later declare.

An emotion Neff and Giorgio could appreciate.