Fifty wins.

Thirty-eight pins.

Colonial League and District 11 championships.

A runner-up finish at regionals and a state medal.

For most wrestlers, those accomplishments would define an unbelievable season.

Northwestern’s Luke Fugazzotto, however, isn’t just any wrestler.

After reaching the state finals as a sophomore, Fugazzotto hoped to return to the championship round and possibly capture a PIAA title this season.

That didn’t happen.

The Tiger junior fell in the 172-pound Class 2A quarterfinals at states, dropped a consolation match and ended up placing seventh.

“No, definitely not,” Fugazzotto said when asked if he considered the season a success. “But it’s definitely a good learning experience for what I have to do next year, and it just gives me a lot of motivation.”

While the George Mason-bound wrestler has a hard time not dwelling on how the year concluded, he reluctantly agreed the overall season had its positive moments.

“It was not the best way I wanted it to end, but still, leading up to that it was pretty good,” Fugazzotto said. “Coming to the end of the season, just my body started getting burnt out. But up to that point, it was definitely pretty good. I got my 100th win and another district title, so it was not bad leading up (to states). I still got a state medal, so it didn’t end totally bad — just not where I wanted to be at the end.”

Despite the sour taste left by the PIAA tournament, there’s no denying Fugazzotto’s performance was worthy of his third straight Times News/Lehigh Valley Health Network Boys Wrestler of the Year award.

He posted a 50-5 record — one of just 21 wrestlers in the state to reach the 50-win plateau according to PA Wrestling.com — while his 38 falls tied for the most in Pennsylvania (with Shepard Turk of Thomas Jefferson). He also reached 100 career victories and will enter his senior season with a record of 127-21.

Fugazzotto is nearing other milestones, too.

“(One hundred wins) is a good thing to come about, but I’m more so looking for 100 pins and breaking the win and pin record at the school,” said Fugazzotto, who has 96 falls. “That would be really good, and that will come about next season hopefully.”

While hitting those marks seems inevitable, so does Fugazzotto’s reaction — or lack thereof — when they happen.

“He’s quiet, humble and hard-working,” said Northwestern head coach Joe Killar. “He’s not very flashy. He’s one of the hardest workers, if not the hardest worker, on the team. He’s relatively quiet. I wouldn’t say he’s outgoing … but he’s a super nice kid. You’d want to have 10 of him on your team if you could.”

Killar agreed Fugazzotto’s state tournament ended on a down note, but said his top wrestler showed growth from last season.

“To be honest with you, his state tournament — by his standards — was not very good,” Killar said. “He got seventh, and in my opinion, he could have been top two or three. But it is what it is. Overall, he had a good year, except for the state tournament.

“I think from last year to this one, he was just more dominant. He went out and basically pinned just about everybody he wrestled. He would just go out and dominate people when he could. I think he probably had a little more confidence this year in all his matches than he did last year.”

While nobody enjoys losing, lessons are often learned from defeat. Fugazzotto is the first to admit that rebounding from losses and managing the mental side of the sport is key to long-term success.

“It teaches you, it conditions your mental state and gives you a way to build back better,” he said. “It just teaches you that you have to take it match by match.

“The mental part of the sport is almost — if not the exact same — as the physical. You’ve got to go into every match with confidence or else you’re probably not going to win at all.”

He added that training has already begun for next season.

“I’m definitely going to be training a lot over the summer, and starting up now,” Fugazzotto said. “Probably going to seek out higher-level training and just … prepare for next year.”

There’s no doubt expectations will once again be sky high for Fugazzotto heading into his senior season.

So what can he do to meet those expectations?

“He’s got to learn to be more offensive on his feet and focus more on chain wrestling — getting into consecutive moves,” Killar said. “That’s where he needs to improve.

“I’m hoping next year he can get back to the state finals and see if he can win. I’m sure that’s the same expectation he has for himself.”