Not all the drama at the District XI individual wrestling championships took place after the Parade of Champions.

For a trio of Northampton senior wrestlers, the possibility of wrestling their last bouts for the Konkrete Kids loomed over their 5th place matches.

Win and move on to regionals. Lose and your time as a high school wrestler is over.

Gunnar Wagner hit a 4-point move with 15 seconds left in the first period in his 113-pound bout and never looked back. He closed out Connor Bevan of Freedom 11-2. Wagner explained his mindset going into the bout.

“Considering it’s my last season I went in there thinking, ‘I’m not going to lose. I need to go in there and wrestle the match of my life.’ And I took it to him,” he said.

Colby Judd went into overtime in his 152-pount match. He reversed his opponent 5 seconds into the first tiebreak period and then rode out Zach Orsagos of Stroudsburg for the remainder of the period and the second tiebreak to claim a 4-2 victory.

“It was kind of make or break,” Judd said. “All of the hard workouts, the grinding I put in for years, it feels good to advance.”

Riley Gallagher had fought back from a knee injury in early January to make one more postseason runs after narrowly missing qualifying for states last season. He led 5-3 with 39 seconds left in his bout when he re-aggravated his knee. He gutted out the remainder of the bout before hobbling off the mat.

“I was not going to lose that match,” he said. “I was not ending my season there. To me, losing was not an option.”

Wagner, Judd, and Gallagher will join fellow seniors Ethan Szerencsits (3rd at 132), Traisach Roland (2nd at 160), and Blake Lambert (3rd at 220) taking one final shot at making it to the PIAA AAA finals.

They’ll be accompanied by the Condomitti brothers as well as freshman Carson Wagner (3rd at 106) and sophomore Makei Hubert (5th at 285).

The top four placers at each weight qualify for the state tournament in Hershey.

The regional tournament starts at 4:30 p.m. on Friday at Liberty High School. All qualified Northampton wrestlers will compete in the preliminaries, except Jagger, who has a bye into the quarterfinals, which will start at approximately 6:30 p.m.

The morning session on Saturday starts at 9:30 a.m. with the semifinals at 11 a.m. The championship and consolation finals will follow the Parade of Champions at 4:50 p.m.

All tickets are sold at the door. For Friday and Saturday morning, the price is $6 adults/$3 students. For the finals it is $8/$4.