Jared Karabinus always wanted to become a district champion wrestler and that moment came to fruition last Saturday night at Liberty’s Memorial Gymnasium.

The Freedom senior rolled through the 189-pound bracket at the District 11 3A tournament, capped by a decisive fall over Easton’s Shane Linegar in 2:35 to emphatically win his first district gold medal.

Karabinus led an impressive charge by the Pates, who advanced five wrestlers to regionals and a sixth-place team finish.

For the top-seeded Karabinus, things looked easy for him at districts, as he recorded two falls, a technical fall and a 5-3 decision over Bethlehem Catholic’s James Deluise in the semifinals in his four bouts to run away with the title.

“It feels great. I’ve been close a couple years ago and it feels really good to finally get one,” said Karabinus. “I knew I was capable of doing it and I just had to go out and win. That’s how I felt coming into the tournament.”

Karabinus took second as a sophomore, but then settled for fourth-place last season. Entering districts as the top-seed came with the expectation that he was the man to beat and nobody came close to that endeavor. Even after pinning Linegar in the finals, Karabinus hardly broke a sweat.

“I felt confident being the number-one seed and this was what I expected,” he said. “I wanted to wrestle smooth and smart. I think I did that and accomplished the goal of winning.”

Accompanying Karabinus at regionals will be Noah Macilroy (172, fourth-place), Joseph Bodnar (139, fifth-place), Keenan Ray (145, fifth-place) and Daniel Schiffert (HWT, fifth-place).

Macilroy lost to Pottsville’s Terrell McFarland 9-3 in the third-place match, but the Pates got a clean sweep in their fifth-place matches to give them a healthy group of wrestlers this week in the lead up to regionals.

Bodnar edged out Easton’s Jason Trimmer with a late takedown in the third period for a 6-4 decision and Ray won by default 4-2 in the first period over Pocono Mountain East’s Cael Harmon. Schiffert sneaked out a 1-0 decision against Pleasant Valley’s Andrew Mihalichko to cap off an impressive consolation round for the team.

Now, they look to run it back with this week with the top four wrestlers from each class advancing to Hershey.

“I just want this to carry over to next week and keep winning,” Karabinus said. “Hopefully, it’s two more weeks of this.”