The Emmaus wrestling team lost the fifth-place match to Freedom, 39-28, at the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference wrestling championship last Saturday at Easton Area Middle School.

“Our goal is to always win our dual meets,” Emmaus head coach Thad Smith said before the tournament. “This weekend is the cross over match against Freedom and we want to wrestle out best to prepare for the team districts. Our goal there is to be in the top four and out-wrestle our seed.”

The Patriots took an early 12-0 lead before Emmaus’ Quin Scott won a 6-5 decision over Noah Macllroy at 160 to close the gap to 12-3.

“Quin is our team leader, works extremely hard and everything he has accomplished in wrestling, he has earned,” Smith said.

After falling behind 18-3, Emmaus rallied with Jake Gross, Jared Groller and Trevor Gitski winning the next three matches to close to 18-16. But the Patriots put the match away by winning the next four bouts. Emmaus’ Marco Albanese and Nick Velde won the final two matches at 132 and 138, respectively.

The two wresters have all season consistently displayed superlative wresting acumen. With the victories, Velde and Albanese improved respectively to 23-2 and 24-1.

“Both wrestlers work extremely hard in the room and they both are always trying to learn new things that will make them better,” the coach said. “They are workout partners and I think that really helps them.”

Velde and Albanese support one another, but also are competitive. Assistant coach Jim Best’s phrase “iron sharpens iron” describes the Velde and Albanese partnership and competition.

“They have to continue to improve just to stay up with each other and that transfers to the matches,” said Smith.

The previous Saturday the Hornets went 2-1 at the Denver Duals held at Cocalico High School. Overall, Smith was pleased with the effort.

“We wrestled very well at the Denver Duals,” Smith said. “A few wrestlers really stepped up and took advantage of their opportunity to wrestle in the varsity lineup.”

Smith was particularly pleased with three wrestlers - Noe Bridges, Reilly Bechtel and Carter Salomon.

The team will be back on the mat Thursday in the District 11 team tournament.

Emmaus (13-8 overall, 6-3 EPC) earned the No. 7 seed in Class 3A and will take on No. 10 Whitehall Thursday at Liberty High School at 6 p.m. The winner will advance to face No. 2 Nazareth in the quarterfinal round, which is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. The loser of the Whitehall-Emmaus match will be eliminated from the tournament.

Districts continue Saturday with consolation matches, semifinals and finals at Freedom High School beginning at 9 a.m. and concluding with the title match at 5:30 p.m. and, if necessary, a true-second-place match at 7:30 p.m. Bethlehem Catholic earned the top seed in Class 3A this year. Northampton (No. 3) and Freedom (No. 4) also earned top four seeds and first-round byes.