It was a weekend that Bethlehem Catholic expected and one that might be a troubling future for District 11 and state competitors heading into the postseason.

The Hawks finished third as a team at the highly touted Escape the Rock tournament with 132 points, behind second place Notre Dame-GP (149.5) and team champion Malvern Prep (182.5), but came away with seven medalists in total and two champions.

Kenny Herrmann (138) and Cole Handlovic (145) both came away with gold medals to lead Becahi, as the Hawks appear to be warming up for postseason action.

“For those guys to win was big for them,” said head coach Jeff Karam. “This tournament falls at a great time and it’s an indicator of where you are right now. And to have as many guys place as we did, shows we’re on pace to do well down the road. Kenny and Cole showed that they’re good enough to win a state title.

“Kenny is so good that I didn’t think he wrestled great at the tourney and the same thing can be said with Cole, but it shows that they’re both going in the right direction.”

Herrmann scored a third period escape to hold up a 1-0 decision over Legacy Christian’s Gavin Brown to secure a championship medal, while Handlovic won a 3-0 decision over Northampton’s Jagger Condomitti in a highly touted 145-pound championship between two of the state’s best.

Handlovic used a first period takedown to take the lead and added an escape in the second period to score the final points in the bout.

The other Hawks to medal included Cael McIntyre (106, fourth), Dante Frinzi (113, sixth), Matt Mayer (126, seventh), Jamir Jiminez (160, seventh) and Justus Bozzi (195, eighth).

“I was pleasantly surprised to have guys exceed their seeds,” Karam said. “It was tough to see two of our guys default out of the tournament because I think they would have placed too, but overall we had seven guys place and that’s something I’m happy with.”

Matt Lackman (152) and Andrew Harmon (120) both had to exit the tourney due to injury. Harmon was forced out in the second round of the tournament with a neck injury, while Lackman had to leave in the fourth round of consolations because of his leg.

With the Hawks slated to wrestle for the East Penn Conference title this weekend against a likely Nazareth squad, getting confidence and valuable reps against top competition a week before the dual meet postseason is always a plus.

“To be honest, I’m not putting a lot of stock into it, because the end result is winning a state title,” said Karam of this weekend’s EPC championships.” We took third last year [at the EPC tourney] and won states, but it’s a good match where we can get a feeler on them [Nazareth]. I want to make sure I see certain matchups this weekend that can show us where we stand with them at different weights. I’m sure Nazareth is looking at it the same way, but we definitely want to get out there and win the title. That’s for sure.”