MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Corespondent Williamsport’s Lillian Rumsey tries to pin Bishop McDevitt’s Lane Fordych in the 112-pound first-place bout at Saturday’s Central Regional girls championships.

MILTON — Both Marissa and Lillian Rumsey have dominated in their respective weights this season. They’re both ranked within the top 3 in Pennsylvania, they both are District 4 and Central Regional gold medalists and both have more than 28 wins with just one loss.

The only real difference between the two is their styles of wrestling. Coach Kevin Werner agrees as well.

“Both of them are different in their approach to wrestling,” Werner said on Saturday at Milton at the Central Regional tournament just shortly before it was announced Williamsport won the team title.

For Lillian (32-1), she’s unorthodox as coach Werner put it. She does things a little different, but the end result has been a win every time. Is she going to shoot low right away to start a match or try to feel her opponent out? Is she going to work from on top in the first period or go for a fast pin right away?

Werner isn’t always sure, but he still is glad to see Lillian having the success she does.

“Lilly is a little more unorthodox. I really enjoy watching her wrestle. I don’t know always as a coach what she’s going to do next or which direction she’s going to go, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised to see her (wrestle),” Werner said. “She’s not afraid to take chances out there.”

Marissa is just as dominant, and has a strategic approach to the match. Like a chess player eyeing a move a few in advance, Marissa gets a feel for what she’s going to do a move or two ahead and already thinking about what’s net.

It’s led to her going 29-1 and not allowing many opponents to score a lot of points against her.

“Marissa on the other hand seems to be a little bit more calculated, but again, she impresses me too. I don’t know exactly what she’s going to go with,” Werner said. “She has a lot of tools in that toolbox and neither one of them are ever out of a match. I think that’s what impresses me the most with them.”

That was evident on Saturday. Lillian wrestled third-ranked Lane Fordyce of Bishop McCort in the final and found herself trailing for majority of the match. Fordyce went ahead 5-0 and led 7-6 by the end of the second period.

But Lillian kept battling, kept working, and took her down midway through the third period to tie it up at 8-8 before getting a decisive win via fall.

“I knew I was going to have to push and I did and it worked,” Lillian said of the gold-medal win.

Lillian and Marissa are both happy to be wrestling with each other as siblings this year and the two are taking it day by day, trying to soak up the memories together before the season ends.

“We’re practicing together, mostly beating up on Lilly,” Marissa said as she sported a smile. “But I feel like it’s bringing our bond even closer.”

“We’re definitely enjoying it together because it’s our last year and I’m excited that I get to experience it with her before she goes off and does bigger things,” Lillian added.

Marissa wrestled the last two seasons with and against boys competitors since girls wrestling didn’t get sanctioned under the PIAA until this season. And taking the bumps and bruises against her boy counterparts has made her a better wrestler.

“Getting beat up on? Yeah, that helped me a lot,” Marissa said with a laugh. “It showed me what I had to work on to get better, and wrestling against the girls is a lot easier because they’re not as strong as the boys so it definitely helped a lot wrestling the boys.”

Lillian will wrestle Canon-McMillan freshman Malia Ramos, the West Regional’s fourth-place finisher, in the first round in Hershey on Thursday. Marissa will face Liberty senior Symarah Drey, the Southeast Regional fourth-place finisher, in the first round.

The Rumsey sisters are two of Williamsport’s three state qualifiers. Danica Bacorn is also competing at the state tournament after she took fourth in the 100-pound tournament. Bacorn will wrestle West Regional champion Valarie Solorio of Canon-McMillan in the first round.

Having three state qualifiers in the first year of a PIAA-sanctioned girls tournament is something Werner is happy with.

“I think it kind of made a statement, put us out there a little bit more than where we started. It was nice having these girls on the team with Bacorn along with Rumsey girls to start off, but they weren’t the only bright spots that we had,” Werner said. “We had a lot of improvement, couple of girls place at districts, we ended up bringing seven here (at regionals). A few of them fell short, but the future looks bright at Williamsport for girls wrestling, I couldn’t be any more pleased with how the season ended up. We still got another week to go and get down to Hershey and get these girls more medals.”

That quest for some hardware at states begins today for the Millionaires.