Once again the Whitehall wrestling team trekked north to get in a little work so they could stay sharp over the holidays as they prepare for the new year.

The Zephyrs competed in the Jim Thorpe Invitational Wrestling Tournament on Dec. 29.

The tournament featured eight teams, with Williams Valley High School capturing the team championship, crowning two individual champs and four runners up en route to first place. Southern Lehigh was second and Jim Thorpe placed third at the 45th installment of the Christmas tournament.

It marks the fifth consecutive year that Whitehall has participated in the tourney, making it sort of an annual tradition for the maroon and gold.

It’s been a tournament where they’ve been successful in the past, and this year was no different. They crowned two champions, Noah Rex at 120 and Dan Miturra at 160.

After getting a bye in the first round, Rex pinned his way to the championship finals where he once again scored a fall, winning in 4:05 over Berwick Area’s Travis Dent. Miturra also received a bye in the first round and then pinned Steve Keim from Daniel Boone High School in 1:41, earning a trip to the championships where he recorded a 5-1 decision over Berwick Area’s Matt Maczuga.

Along with those two champs, they had a number of top-five finishes, including Josh Grol who placed third at 126, Nikitas Davis who was second at 138, John Kaintz who was fourth at 145, Jesiah Davis who was third at 152, Marwan Rahja who was third at 170, and Mike Ajami who was fifth at 182.

Head coach Tim Cunningham likes the Jim Thorpe tourney because it gets the whole team involved.

“It is a good tournament for all wrestlers including JV wrestlers [because] they get to wrestle a few JV bouts,” said Cunningham. “With our tough schedule it is good to go to a tournament where everyone has a chance to win a few matches and feel success and see improvement. It is also good to enter a tournament during the holidays to break up the practices during the long stretch.”

Cunningham said he envisions a day when they may want to enter more rigorous holiday tournaments.

“As we get more experience we will continue to toughen our individual tournament schedule as we did in the past,” said Cunningham. “Our goal has been and always will be to compete at the highest level as we did in the past. We have a few guys this year that are ready for the next step and have some guys coming up from our Jr. High and Little Zephyr team that compete all year round in tournaments.”

The young team has made strides, and that will be important as they enter the meat of their dual meat season.

“Over the last few weeks we have seen improvements from the guys on a daily basis in the practice room, we just need to carry it over to our matches no matter who we are wrestling,” said Cunningham.

The Zephyrs begin the new year with a match against Bethlehem Catholic on Jan. 7.