Hawks take best finish ever at the Beast
Bethlehem Catholic didn't win the Beast of the East team title over the weekend, but that wasn't a big deal to head coach Jeff Karam.
Witnessing two of his wrestlers, one of which is his son, come away with individual titles, as well as a second place team finish (152 points) behind Blair Academy (203 points) provided enough good feelings to go around for the program at one of the nation's best wrestling tournaments.
At the end of a long weekend, Andrew Dunn (220) and Luke Karam (126) came away with gold medals to spearhead the best finish the Golden Hawks have ever amassed at the tournament.
Karam also won the Outstanding Wrestler award following a 7-2 decision over Austin Assad of Brecksville (OH), as the Becahi junior defeated two wrestlers ranked in the top 10 nationally en route to his first Beast crown.
Dunn knocked off Patrick Grayson of Colonial Forge (Va.) 3-2 in the ultimate tie-breaker to win his second individual title in this early season, as he also won the King of the Mountain tournament a week ago.
"We really put it all together," said Hawks' head coach Jeff Karam. "Our effort here was night and day from last week. We won the King of the Mountain on pure talent, but this week it was all about the work ethic."
The Hawks placed five wrestlers in total, as Jake Riegel (120) took fourth, Stephen Maloney (128) grabbed fifth and Mikey Labriola (152) finished in seventh to give the Hawks another weekend of milestone wrestling.
Karam improved from his disappointing third-place finish at the King of the Mountain a week ago to arguably win the toughest weight class the Beast had to offer and Dunn continued his dominating form this season by beating Grayson.
But the entire team put in the work over the weekend to achieve the tremendous results and provide even more fear across Pennsylvania at what Becahi can become once the postseason rolls around.
"We just worked extremely hard in the room every day at practice last week," said Karam. "It was one of the best week's we've had in a long time. Every guy that wrestled had at least two wins [at the Beast] and they all helped us get this finish.
"Riegel's fourth place finish was crucial for us in the team standings and I'm just really proud of our guys for the way they stepped up. Now we get to do it at home for our own Christmas tournament."








