The Northampton girls wrestling team was in action Saturday as they competed in the EPC championships at Easton Middle School. EPCs are an individual tournament and offer a bit of a preview of the district tournament that will be contested in a little over two weeks.

The K-Kids had three place winners: Emilee Gaughran (106) and Dani Glaser (235) both made the finals but were pinned in their respective title bouts by the top seeds in their weight classes.

Gaughran entered the tournament as the sixth seed and had her highest finish in either EPCs or districts in her three-year varsity career. Her key match was a 9-5 upset of third-seeded Adrianna Raschilla of Nazareth in the quarterfinals.

Glaser, a two-time regional qualifier, pinned two seed Jocelynn Cervenka of Pleasant Valley to reach her second EPC final in three tries. She fell to Karla Montes de oca of Allen in the championship match.

Taylor Sipel earned her second straight EPC fourth-place medal. She majored Lilly Kuhs of Nazareth in the quarters 12-3. She was pinned by top seed and eventual champion Joey Cappa of ES South in the semis and dropped the consolation final to Lily Snook of Parkland 15-0.

Northampton had three other semifinalists.

Freshman Marissa Fogel was up 7-0 against eventual champion Elaina Mercadante of PM East before falling 9-7 in sudden victory on a stalling call. She missed out on medal after a 5-3 loss to Eva Trujillo of Liberty in consolations.

Chevere also got bounced to consys by a top seed. Jedah Canty of Freedom reversed Chevere to her back for a first period pin. The K-Kids senior dropped a 7-1 decision to Kendra Cressman of Liberty to fall short of the podium.

Juliana Noe opened with a pair of pins and was the lone K-Kid semifinalist not to suffer her first loss of the tournament to the eventual winner of her bracket.

Overall, Northampton finished eighth in the 17-team field. Parkland was a dominant team champion, scoring 89 points more than runner-up Nazareth.

Head coach Joe Tocci shared his thoughts after the tournament, “We only brought eight athletes here because we’re pretty beat up, so we were behind the eight ball. We knew it would be hard to hang with the upper echelon teams because we just didn’t have the bodies. We put 6 of 8 into the semifinals. We had a tremendous first round. We just had some heartbreaking losses.”

EPC Championships

Team Scores

1. Parkland 225, 2. Nazareth 136, 3. Emmaus 119, 4. Liberty 115, 5. East Stroudsburg South 110.5, 6. Pocono Mountain West 102, 7. Easton 101, 8. Northampton 76, 9. Stroudsburg 73, 10. Pleasant Valley 70, 11. Pocono Mountain East 64.5, 12. Freedom 59, 13. Allen 35, 14. Whitehall 30, 15. Bethlehem Catholic 7, 16. Dieruff 6, 17. East Stroudsburg North 3.

Championship Finals

100 - Chelsea Dressler (Nazareth) tech. fall Mya Jiminez (ES South), 20-5 in 2:51; 106 - Peyton Schneck (Parkland) major dec. Emilee Gaughran (Northampton), 10-1; 112 - Morgan Hyland (Easton) pinned Kendal Balkam (Nazareth) in 3:18; 118 - Joey Cappa (ES South) pinned Danielle Williams (Easton) in 2:31; 124 - Elaina Medadante (PM East) dec. Saige Rittenhouse (Parkland); 130 - Kamora Gilbreath (PM East) tech. fall Jadah Canty (Freedom), 15-0 in 2:24; 136 - Angelina Spachman (Parkland) major dec. Myla Good (Nazareth) 10-1; 142 - Laura Volpe (Parkland) pinned Hailey Laible (Emmaus) in :54; 148 - Ariana Koberlein (Emmaus) dec. Josie Fetterman (Pleasant Valley), 7-2; 155- Olivya Kroope (Emmaus) pinned Natalie Deutsch (Parkland) in :37; 170 - Jasmine Chapman (Stroudsburg) pinned Jennifer Szmak (PM West) in 3:02; 190 - Lizkarla Grullon-Vasquez (Parkland) pinned Ellie Rumbalski (Liberty) in 5:02; 235 - Karla Montes de oco (Allen) pinned Danielle Glaser (Northampton) in 1:26.