HS Wrestling Notebook: Area squads look ahead to District 11 Team Wrestling Championships
North Schuylkill's Nate Sterner and Tri-Valley's Noah Hanlon battle in the 145-pound final Jan. 18 at the Schuylkill League Wrestling Championships. (Photo by Eli Doyle)
It’s District Duals week.
Coaches scheming and juggling lineups to create favorable matchups. Toss-up bouts and upsets swinging the outcome one way or the other. Wrestlers pushing themselves for another takedown, another turn for back points to earn major decisions, technical falls and pins. Opposing wrestlers scrapping with all they have and fighting off their backs to avoid giving up those crucial bonus points.
Bethlehem Freedom High School will be the site for the annual District 11 Team Wrestling Championships. The event will begin early Saturday morning and stretch well into the evening before a champion and runner-up are determined. Those two finalists in each class will represent the district in the 20-team PIAA Team Wrestling Championships.
That schedule has undergone a major overhaul this season, with preliminary and round-of-16 duals being held Tuesday, Feb. 4, at regional sites across the state. Then, instead of heading to Hershey’s Giant Center, the remaining eight teams in each class will gather at Altoona Area High School on Feb. 7-8 to battle it out for a state title.
Before all of that, however, you have to earn your ticket to the state party.
And it won’t be easy, especially in District 11. Especially this season.
The district is simply loaded with state- and sometimes-nationally ranked individuals and teams. Let’s break it down.
The schedule — Wednesday is the final day that duals will be counted toward qualifying and seeding. Once the eight qualifiers in each class are determined by rating points, the teams will be seeded subjectively by a seeding committee as determined by District 11 wrestling chairman Bob Hartman. Seeding will be done by noon Thursday.
After weigh-ins at 8 a.m. Saturday at Freedom, action will begin at 9 a.m. with the Class AA quarterfinals. The Class 3A quarterfinals will follow at 11 a.m. The Class AA semifinals are set for 1 p.m., with the Class 3A semifinals at 3 p.m. The championship finals in both classes will be held at 7 p.m. on two mats.
Class AA — With Wednesday the final day that results will be counted toward the duals, it looks like the small-school field is pretty well set.
Entering Tuesday’s meets, perennial power Saucon Valley (14-1) has the top rating and is virtually guaranteed the No. 1 seed.
Here’s where it gets interesting. North Schuylkill (10-2) is second with .6830 rating points, just ahead of No. 3 Palmerton (10-2) with .6755.
Northwestern Lehigh (12-6, .6326) is fourth, with Pine Grove (13-5, .6260) in fifth.
Pen Argyl (8-4, .6108) follows in sixth, with Tri-Valley (11-5, .6103) and Lehighton (11-6, .6017) rounding out the field.
It looks like No. 9 Mahanoy Area (8-4, .5361) will be the first team out.
North Schuylkill, a heavy favorite over Pottsville on Wednesday, should be seeded No. 2 or No. 3. Anything lower would be unfair to the Spartans. Losses to Pine Grove and Lehighton, though, could hurt North Schuylkill in the committee’s eyes.
Northwestern Lehigh will stay fourth or could jump Palmerton based on the Tigers’ 41-27 victory over the Blue Bombers earlier this season.
Some shuffling among the bottom four could occur as Pine Grove, Pen Argyl, Tri-Valley and Lehighton are quite evenly matched.
Class 3A — The Schuylkill League will be shut out here, as No. 10 Blue Mountain (12-6) is the area’s top-rated team. Pottsville (6-10) is 21st.
The top eight list reads like a who’s who of Pennsylvania wrestling.
Nazareth (12-0) leads the ratings with .8639 points, ahead of No. 2 Bethlehem Catholic (10-0, .8320).
Northampton (13-2, .7571) rates third, followed by Notre Dame-Green Pond (10-1, .7500) at No. 4. The Crusaders are thriving after their move from Class AA to 3A for this two-year cycle.
Rising Easton (7-2, .7347) comes in fifth, with No. 6 Whitehall (15-4, .6981), No. 7 Emmaus (11-4, .6691) and No. 8 Parkland (10-5, .6615) currently in. No. 9 Freedom (10-6, .6293) stands ninth ahead of Wednesday’s dual at Liberty. Many of those ratings are separated by thousandths of a point and could change after tonight’s and Wednesday’s matches. What the committee does here is anybody’s guess.
Daily double
North Schuylkill will have a celebration Wednesday night at the Cesari-Hope Gymnasium as the Spartans wrap up the Schuylkill League Division I schedule against Pottsville.
With its victory over Blue Mountain earlier this month, North Schuylkill clinched the division title, its 24th overall and first since 2022. On Jan. 18, the Spartans also captured the team title at the Schuylkill League Wrestling Championships hosted by Blue Mountain High School.
This season marks the eighth time that the Spartans have won the dual-meet and tournament championships in the same season. It’s been quite a while, though — 2002 to be exact — since they pulled off the double.
The other years: 1982, 1983, 1985, 1987, 1989 and 1995.
Century club
Add Pine Grove senior Austin Martin to the list of 100-match winners.
With four falls Saturday at the Hershey Duals, Martin reached the milestone, then held a large banner while celebrating with teammates and coaches.
Martin joins Blue Mountain senior Bradley Renninger, Eagles junior Owen Woll and Tamaqua senior Aiden Schlier as career-100-match winners this season.
A few others have a chance to put their names on the list.
