Catasauqua wrestlers are hoping they can use last week’s Coal Cracker Tournament as a springboard to what they hope will be long runs in the upcoming wrestling playoffs - which includes the team districts duals this weekend, and then eventually individual districts, regionals and states.

The Roughs had four wrestlers place last weekend: Austin Brett (3rd, 120), Jaryn Hartranft (4th, 106), Jacob Nye (7th, 106) and Gavin Fehr (7th, 120).

All four wrestlers agreed that last weekend’s tournament has turned into one of the tougher ones in the area but that is a good thing.

Austin Brett

“The tournament was pretty tough this year. They added 10 or so teams,” said Brett. “There are kids from all over the area. I had a tough semis match and worked my way back to third and ended up taking third.

“This tournament is one of the biggest. Coming into here and placing good is a good way to start off the end of the postseason and go into districts.”

Hartranft took fourth but knows there is room for improvement over the next month or so as he looks to accomplish his goal of placing at states.

“It’s definitely a learning experience because there’s kids from all around the state coming here,” Hartranft said. “Besides Beast of the East, this is definitely a good tournament.

“I take [these] experiences really seriously. Then I watch my matches and go over them and learn from what I did and just get better.”

Both Nye and Fehr took seventh, and for Nye, he’s looking to build off his newfound confidence with some help from teammates.

“I knew this tournament would be hard so placing is a big confidence builder,” Nye said. “It showed me that I can do better in the postseason and districts, regionals and maybe states. I was surprised I placed. I was surprised I did as good as I did.

“My teammates motivated me to do the best that I could. They make me work harder every day.”

Just a freshman, Fehr was happy to place despite some nerves from the competition he was going to face. Fehr also tries to use his teammates as motivation, but also pointed out they can’t always be there.

“A lot - when we’re not wrestling at the same time because we’re all around the same weight,” Fehr said about getting encouragement from guys like Hartranft, Nye and Brett. “So it’s kind of hard, but yeah, they help me a lot. I saw a lot of kids I’m going to have to wrestle at districts.”