Grappling with glory
District 11 3A and 2A championships begin Friday
The District 11 Wrestling Championships are days away. Here are six things to know ahead of the tournament:
1. Schedule
Friday (Class 2A at Freedom; Class 3A at Liberty): 5 p.m., pigtails and preliminary round; 6:30, quarterfinals; 7:30, firstround consolations
Saturday: 9 a.m., secondround consolations; 10:15, semifinals and third-round consolations; 11:45, fourth-round consolations; 3 p.m. (2A and 3A at Liberty), third- and fifth-place matches; 4:30, parade of champions; 4:45, finals
2. Tickets
$7 for each session; $20 for an all-sessions ticket. Fans 65 and older are admitted free with proof of age. No refunds. All tickets must be purchased online here: http://districtxi.hometownticketing.com/embed/all
3. What comes next
The top four in Class 2A and five in Class 3A qualify for the Southeast Regional (2A) and
Northeast Regional (3A) at Freedom and Liberty, respectively.
4. Back for more
There are seven returning 2A champions (Notre Dame-GP’s Ayden Smith, Keegan Ramsay, Holden Garcia; Saucon Valley’s Aiden Grogg, Hector Mateo, Jake Jones and Ty Pfizenmayer) and nine in 3A (Bethlehem Catholic’s Nate Desmond, Cael McIntyre, Kollin Rath, Andrew Harmon and Luke Thomas; Nazareth’s Tahir Parkins, Sonny Sasso and Sean Kinney; plus Northampton’s Dagen Condomitti).
Condomitti is bidding for a family four-peat. The two-time district champion was last year’s 3A outstanding wrestler. His brother, Jagger, won it the previous two seasons.
5. Chasing 100
The following wrestlers are closing in on 100 career wins:
Parkland’s Adrian Gacek (97 wins)
Nazareth’s Jake Doone (96) Bethlehem Catholic’s Cael McIntyre (93)
Notre Dame-GP’s Ayden Smith (92)
Saucon Valley’s Liam Scrivanich (90)
Nazareth’s Sonny Sasso (86)
Quakertown’s Calvin Lachman (86)
Bethlehem Catholic’s Andrew Harmon (85)
Salisbury’s John Samy (85) Quakertown’s Collin Gaj (83) Emmaus’ Marco Albanese (82)
Saucon Valley’s Cole Hubert (80)
6. History Repeating itself ?
Last year was the first time in District 11 history that only two teams (Saucon Valley with seven and Notre Dame-GP with six in Class 2A) accounted for all the gold medals in one classification.
Class 3A had just three teams (Bethlehem Catholic 7, Nazareth 5, Northampton 1) win district titles, the fewest since 1996.
Bethlehem Catholic’s seven championships were the most in 3A since Nazareth had seven in 2007. The Golden Hawks had seven in 2014, their last year in 2A.
Notre Dame-GP and Nazareth are the defending team champions.
Morning Call reporter
Tom Housenick can be reached at 610-820-6651 or at thousenick@mcall.com