Dual meets between fairly equal teams can often come down to individual matchups. When the Northampton wrestling team faced off against long-time rival Nazareth on Friday, their options to dictate favorable matchups disappeared before the contest even started.

A key wrestler missed weight by a tenth of a pound, causing numerous wrestlers to have to bump up or get locked into weights. The K-Kids also lost the coin flip, further hampering their flexibility.

After surrendering an opening forfeit at 107, Northampton won 5 of the next 8 bouts by either tech fall or pin to take a 28-18 lead. However, those would be the only wins on the night for the Kids as Nazareth won the last 4 matches to claim victory 37-28.

Freshman Ben Schoenenberger locked up a quick cradle to win his bout at 114 in 45 seconds.

Sophomore Braden Wenrich, a state runner-up at 107 as a freshman, got a first period pin wrestling at 127. He will likely be competing at 121 this season.

Senior Trey Wagner, who committed to wrestle at the Air Force Academy, had a dominating 16-0 tech fall at 145. Wagner was state champion at 127 as a sophomore and finished fifth in the state at 133 last year.

Senior Chase Grabfelder, who was a first-time state qualifier at 152 last year, won by a 26-6 tech at that weight in the match. The 100-win career mark is possible for Grabfelder who came into the year with 63 wins.

Junior Gabe Ballard, who has committed to wrestle at Lehigh, has made a big jump in weigh class this year. The state runner-up at 127 in 2025, is up into the 160-pound weight class. He had a pin in 50 seconds against Nazareth.

Nazareth had 1 pin, 1 tech fall, 5 majors and a forfeit to accumulate their team points. There were no close bouts either way in the dual as all contests resulted in bonus points.

Head coach Joe Provini expressed his disappointment, “When you’re wrestling a team like Nazareth, we know how good they are, we know how they’re going to wrestle. We did not match their intensity. We were letting them dictate turns from our feet. We just made too many mistakes and you have to be perfect against a program like that.”

Note: Two-time state medalist Jack Campbell did not wrestle for the Blue Eagles in the match.

Nazareth 37,

Northampton 28

107 - Jack Dressler (Naz) won by forfeit; 114 - Benjamin Schoeneberger (Nor) pinned Jonathan Aroche-Pelaez (Naz), 0:45; 121 - Derek Fulmer (Naz) maj. dec. Cade Strauss (Nor), 16-4; 127 - Brayden Wenrich (Nor) pinned Juan Diaz (Naz), 1:48; 133 - Caleb Kosko (Naz) maj. dec. Davi Glykas (Nor), 15-2; 139 - Cooper Wenrich (Naz) maj. dec. Matthew Sommer (Nor), 16-4; 145 - Trey Wagner (Nor) won by tech. fall over Michael Good (Naz), 16-0 5:34; 152 - Chase Grabfelder (Nor) won by tech. fall over Chase Brown (Naz), 26-6 5:01; 160 - Gabriel Ballard (Nor) pinned Jayden Quach (Naz), 0:50; 172 - Cade Campbell (Naz) maj. dec. Carter Chlebove (Nor), 10-2; 189 - Dominick Tunison (Naz) maj. dec. Logan Rusnock (Nor), 11-0; 215 - Elijah Simak (Naz) won by tech. fall over Joell Small (Nor), 22-6 3:21; 285 - Brayden Zuercher (Naz) pinned Brandon McEntire (Nor), 0:48