Luke Nichter, center, won the 170-pound title at the Escape The Rock.

HOLLAND — He did it the hard way, but Chambersburg’s Luke Nichter will be coming home Sunday night with a championship belt from the prestigious Escape The Rock wrestling tournament.

Nichter, a junior 170-pounder, won a pair of close decisions Sunday by rallying from behind to become only the second Trojan to win an ESR title — two-time PIAA champion Garett Hammond won it twice.

“It feels good, although I was not expecting to be behind three or four points in both matches,” Nichter said.

In the semifinals, Nichter, the top seed, faced Leonard Pinto of Stroudsburg, the No. 4 seed. Pinto scored a reversal and back points in the first period to lead 4-3, then escaped and took Nichter down in the second to lead 7-3.

Before the period ended, Nichter escaped and took Pinto down to close within 7-6. Nichter escaped again and secured a takedown with 1:23 left to take a 9-7 lead, making a late Pinto escape a non-factor.

“I just knew I needed to get two from my feet,” Nichter said. “Early on, I was pushing him, but he caught me twice.”

In the final, Nichter met No. 2 seed Angel Garcia of Mariano Bracetti, a prep school from Philadelphia. Garcia took the lead with a takedown, then went ahead 4-1 in the second period with an escape and penalty point for stalling with 0:06 left.

In the final period, Nichter made it 4-2 with an escape, with 47 seconds left. With the clock running out, Nichter caught Garcia in a throw for a takedown and three nearfall points to win 7-4.

Nichter said, “He was doing a lot of pushing and I got called for stalling twice. I couldn’t get my tieups, so I couldn’t get to my normal stuff for a while.

“I think we had a restart with 13 seconds left, and when I threw him to his back, I saw there were 6 seconds left. I sort of came at him from the side, got double unders and was able to throw him.”

The Trojans placed 17th in the 49-team tournament.

Tate Nichter (145) and Wyatt Hull (220) both were defeated in their first consolation match Sunday, which left them one win short of capturing a medal.

Tate Nichter lost 9-3 to A.J. Tamburrino of William Tennett, with an escape and takedown by Tamburrino early in the third breaking it open. Leading 1-0 after two periods, Hull gave up an escape and penalty point just eight seconds into the third and fell 2-1 to Sean Horner of Kingsway, N.J.