The District 11 2A wrestling championships over the weekend were a clear indicator of the distaste that many in the Lehigh Valley have against Bethlehem Catholic's wrestling program.

The raucous and deafening roar that ensued following Tri-Valley's Sammy Hepler pinning Jake Riegel in the first championship bout of the night may have produced the loudest roar the tournament has seen in recent memory, but there wasn't much more to cheer about by the opposition, as the Hawks racked up seven gold medals out of 10 finalists and crushed the field to run away with the team title.

The Hawks pushed 12 wrestlers into this weekend's Southeast Regional 2A tournament and hushed the crowd for the most part of their methodical title wins.

Senior Zeke Moisey capped an illustrious district run, winning his fourth straight district championship with a fall in 3:29 over Pius X's Dante Albanese in the 126-pound title bout to become the second Becahi wrestler to ever achieve that feat, joining Duane Peoples as the only Hawks to ever win four district championships.

"It's a great privilege to win four district championships," Moisey said. "I'm now looking to win another regional title [going for his third] and keep things going full throttle."

The Hawks earned district championships from Luke Karam (113), Joey Gould (120), Mike Labriola (138), Adam Soldridge (160), Jose Ortiz (182) and Andrew Dunn (220), but it was the ones they lost that had head coach Jeff Karam wanting more.

Riegel, the seventh-seed, started things off in an electrifying match against the top-seeded Hepler and was close to pulling out the win in regulation with a near takedown that was never delivered. That allowed the overtime drama to unfold, as he was pinned in 37 seconds.

Pen Argyl's Andrew Sutton gave the crowd another opportunity to cheer against the Hawks, as he turned a 4-0 deficit against Stephen Maloney in the 132-pound title match into a 5-4 victory, following a five-point move to bring the gymnasium to their feet.

Nick Cortopassi (170) was the other Hawk to fall by the wayside, losing a 3-1 decision to Auston Hummel of North Schuylkill.

"Going into the tournament if you would have asked me if I was happy to get seven champs, I'd say yeah," Karam said, "but when you look back at the matches we lost, we were in position to win each of those. Jake had a chance to win with a takedown late, Stephen got hit with a five-point move and then Nick gives up a late takedown near the edge of the mat. I feel for those guys that didn't win."

Karam may have been the only person in the gym, outside of people associated with Becahi's program, to feel for any Hawk wrestlers that lost, as the crowd clearly would have been happy to bring more vocal displeasure if the Hawks lost.

Becahi scored 302.5 points, compared to second place Tri-Valley, which totaled 127. Getting seven champions was outstanding as well, while advancing 12 to regionals was expected, but Karam wasn't pleased with Moisey getting snubbed for the outstanding wrestler award.

That was shared by guess who: Tri-Valley's Sammy Hepler and Pen Argyl's Andrew Sutton.

"Zeke became a four-time district champion and totally dominated the competition," said Karam, as Moisey pinned three of his four opponents and tech falled the other. "I understand that people may not like me or our program and the two kids that got the award are great wrestlers, but I felt bad for Zeke because he did something that's rarely been done."

Moisey took the snub in stride, even though he's arguably the best wrestler in the entire district.

"Sutton and Hepler had great matches," he said. "I think it shows how much District 11 doesn't like Bethlehem Catholic."

Mason Angstadt (145, third) and Paul Aaroe (HWT, fourth) also advanced to regionals. Jody Crouse took fifth at 195 for the Hawks as well.