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LEHIGH VALLEY WEATHER

BC wins D-11 team title

The high school career of Luke Karam is one that most wrestlers would certainly envy.

Karam has experienced it all during his four years at Bethlehem Catholic, winning everything in his sight during his tenure, but as he capped off his final District 11 wrestling tournament on Saturday night with a 9-0 shutout over Parkland’s Andrew Mastrangelo in the 126-pound finals, Karam and his father, head coach Jeff Karam, shared a moment in his corner following his fourth district title (two in AA and two in AAA).

“He just said how proud he was of me and talked about how this was going to be the last time I’m wrestling in a District 11 tournament,” said Karam. “I mean he only has a couple more times left to sit in my corner and he’s been there my whole life. I wouldn’t be where I am without that man.”

You can argue that plenty of wrestlers on Becahi’s roster can say the same thing about Karam after another dominating performance by the Hawks over the weekend.

Becahi ran away with the team title, out-pacing second place Nazareth by a 227.5-to-175 point margin, to go along with four district champions (Karam, Mike Labriola, Adam Soldridge and Joey Gould), seven finalists and 10 qualifiers for this weekend’s Northeast Regional AAA tournament at Liberty.

But with just under two weeks left in the season, Karam acknowledged his run in a Becahi singlet is coming to an end.

“These next couple of weeks are extremely important to me,” said Karam. “I feel like right now I’m wrestling the best I have all season. I just want to keep this rolling at regionals this weekend. Winning four district titles is nice, but three [state titles] would mean a lot more to me in two weeks.”

It was a night of multiple titles for each of the Hawks champions, as Labriola kicked things off at 170, making easy work of Parkland’s Frank Guida with a 16-7 major decision to win his second district championship.

Soldridge followed suit at 182 with an exciting 4-3 double overtime win over Dieruff’s Jayden Reyes, giving him a third district gold, while Joey Gould (132) added his second district championship with an 8-5 decision over Emmaus’ Lucas Schaf.

“Each title gets sweeter and this was fun because Jayden’s a great friend of mine,” said Soldridge of his third straight crown. “It’s great for our team and I’m just happy with the way we all wrestled here this weekend.”

Stephen Maloney (138), Jody Crouse (195) and Niko Camacho (HWT) reached the finals as well, but neither could push themselves atop the podium.

Maloney was forced to forfeit his title bout with Nazareth’s talented Sammy Sasso due to injury, while Crouse fell victim to Stroudsburg’s John Jakobsen by fall in 2:00.

Camacho lost 4-3 to Liberty’s Andrew Gunning.

Also moving on for the Hawks are Zach Glenn (106, 3rd), Luke Carty (120, 3rd) and Cole Karam (152, 3rd).

Hawks head coach Jeff Karam and Nazareth head coach Dave Crowell shared co-coach of the year honors as well.

Freshman Ryan Anderson (113) did not make weight and is now out of the postseason.

Press photos by Nancy ScholzJoey Gould (top), here in the finals against Emmaus' Lucas Schaf, was one of four Hawks to win districts last weekend.