Bethlehem Catholic is fresh off a team state wrestling championship, but head coach Jeff Karam doesn’t want his team to take their foot off the gas.

The Hawks won the PIAA team title a year ago over Nazareth, but went on to finish second to the Blue Eagles the next three weeks of the individual postseason to give Karam plenty of bulletin board material for his wrestlers as they prepare for this weekend’s District 11 3A tournament at Liberty’s Memorial Gymnasium.

That means the main objective for this weekend is bringing home the team title at districts.

“We’re in the same situation as last year coming off a state title,” Karam said, “but then we took our foot off the gas and Nazareth got better in the postseason for individuals. It’s important we try to do better than last year. They’re young men and you never know what they’re going to do. We got unfinished business after taking second in districts, regionals and states.”

Becahi will certainly be in the hunt with Nazareth for the team title this weekend, as the Hawks return five district champions from last year with Nate Desmond (114), Cael McIntyre (133), Kollin Rath (139), Andrew Harmon (160) and Luke Thomas (172).

Those five will be in contention to bring back gold medals this weekend, but so will freshman Keanu Dillard (107), who is the top-ranked wrestler in his weight class in the country.

“I expect Keanu to be right there with those other guys [returning champions],” said Karam. “It’s District 11, you never know what you’re going to get. I’d like to get five champs again. It was a good tournament last year, but we finished second and we might need more than that this year if we want the title.”

Karam hopes he can send all 13 of his wrestlers to regionals, as the top five from each weight class move on to next week’s tournament.

“You want them all to advance,” he said. “I think they all have the capability to get through. I feel really good about all the guys up to 172, but our upper weights are the wild cards. James Deluise (189) won the wrestle off with Landon Muth and Augustus Warke (215) has come on of late. Elijah [Thompson] has been one of the best heavyweights in the area, but Nazareth has a returning state champion there. I’m excited to see what those guys can do.”

Wrestling gets underway at 5 p.m. Friday with the pigtail round and preliminaries, followed by the 6:30 p.m. quarterfinals and 7:30 p.m. first-round consolations.

Saturday’s menu starts at 9 a.m. with the second-round of consolations followed by semifinals at 10:15 a.m. The third and fifth place matches take place at 3 p.m. with the finals for 2A and 3A coming together at Memorial Gymnasium at 4:45 p.m.

Below is the full lineup of wrestlers for the Hawks this weekend.

107 - Keanu Dillard

114 - Nathan Desmond

121 - Ryder Campbell

127 - Shane McFillin

133 - Cael McIntyre

139 - Kollin Rath

145 - Charlie Scanlan

152 - Jake Dailey

160 - Andrew Harmon

172 - Luke Thomas

189 - James Deluise

215 - Augustus Warke

285 - Elijah Thompson