Just about two weeks ago, the Parkland wrestling team was a point away from winning team districts at Freedom high school, but the Nazareth Blue Eagles prevailed on criteria, with the match actually being tied 27-27.

After defeating Liberty for the second time of the day, less than an hour after the Nazareth match, the Trojans qualified for the team state tournament.

In the preliminary round of the PIAA Class AAA team championships, on Monday, February 3, Parkland took down Garnet Valley 35-20 to advance to Hershey.

The Trojans first match last Thursday at the Giant Center was against District 6 champ Central Mountain 33-27.

Just as the Blue Eagles did in the district final, North Allegheny out of District 7 beat the Trojans in dramatic fashion 28-27. Parkland was deducted a point due to unsportsmanlike conduct.

Heading into the consolation rounds, on the same day, the Trojans were able to handle Wilson West Lawn 41-19 thanks to victories by Andrew Mastrangelo (106), Jacob Lizak (113), Ethan Lizak (120), Jareed Hasan (132), Nathan Christman (145), Josh Ortman (152), Rahmeir Thompson (182), Nezar Haddad (195) and Omar Haddad (220).

On Saturday in the consolation quarterfinal, Parkland took care of Boyertown 33-21thanks in large part to pins by Hasan and Ortman, and a tech fall by Ethan Lizak.

But then in the consolation semifinals, the Trojans faced a familiar foe in Nazareth, which also beat Parkland in the regular season for the Trojans' only Lehigh Valley Conference loss. Their match at states, however, was a bit more one-sided than their meeting in districts.

The Blue Eagles only lost three bouts. The Haddad brothers picked up decisions and Ethan Lizak won by forfeit. Besides that, Nazareth dominated with eight decisions, a pin, a tech fall, and a forfeit at 285.

"The biggest difference in the last match was that Nazareth dropped a few of their lighter weights and had Sage Karam back in the line up this time," said Parkland head coach Ryan Nunemaker.

This makes their team much tougher from top to bottom. They also wrestled the best I have seen them all year against us.

Even with the lopsided loss, Parkland can still use the confidence that the younger players received by making a deep run into the last day of the state tournament, before individual districts begin next week.

"I thought our kids did an outstanding job this past weekend at states," said Nunemaker. "We finished in the top 6 in the state for the second year in a row. Our team wrestled 10 dual meets in 10 days against the best teams in the state."