The inaugural East Penn Conference wrestling championships will take place this Saturday at Easton Area Middle School and the matchups for the day’s event are close to being finalized heading into the weekend.

Official pairings won’t be released until Thursday, but the matches for the marquee bouts this weekend have already been clinched, as wrestling will take place at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.

Wrestling will be broken down with teams from each of the EPC’s two divisions battling against each other based on where they finish in the standings in their respective divisions.

Bethlehem Catholic (12-1, 8-0) will take on Nazareth (11-0, 7-0) in a battle of top teams from Division A and B respectively, in a bout that will determine the league championship.

The Hawks come in as the top ranked 3A team in the state and Nazareth is ranked fifth in 3A, according to PA Power Wrestling.

Division A runner-up Parkland (11-2, 6-1) takes on Division B runner-up Easton (12-2, 7-1) in another compelling bout.

Either Freedom (10-7, 4-3), Emmaus (11-6, 3-3) or Northampton (6-6, 4-3) will meet third-place Liberty (9-3, 5-2) from Division B.

These three matches will be slated for the 3 p.m. time slot.

Teams that finish in fourth, fifth or sixth place in their divisions will wrestle at 1 p.m., while the bottom three teams kick off the day at 11 a.m.

Heading into this week the standings for the other matches looked like this: 4th place match-(Free., Nor., or Emm.) vs. Stroudsburg (9-3, 4-3); 5th place match-(Free., Nor., or Emm) vs. East Stroudsburg South (7-9, 3-4); 6th place match-East Stroudsburg North (11-8, 3-4) vs. Pocono Mountain East (8-9, 2-5); 7th place match-Dieruff (8-9, 2-5) vs. Allen (9-12, 2-5); 8th place match-Pocono Mountain West (5-12, 1-5) vs. Pleasant Valley (7-11, 2-5) and in the 9th place match-Whitehall (4-12, 0-7) vs. Central Catholic (1-13, 0-7).

With this being the league’s first championship day, Whitehall athletic director Bob Hartman, who is co-chair of wrestling for the conference, is hoping for a great turnout at the inaugural event.

“I think we’ll have nine dual meets that should match fairly equal teams,” said Hartman. “Plus, we’ll have our first true league champion decided.

“Whether you’re the top or bottom team in your respective division, it should be a day of competitive wrestling.”