The 10th-seeded Whitehall Zephyrs competed in the District 11 Class 3A Team Wrestling Tournament last Thursday when they fell to the seventh-seeded Emmaus Hornets, 33-23, at Liberty High School.

“We wrestled them a week ago, made some adjustments,” said Whitehall coach Tim Cunningham. “Some of the kids used the adjustments we went over.”

One of those Zephyr wrestlers was Dayvion Marshmaon, who pinned Carter Salomon at 106 lbs. in 1:15. Damond Pascoe also won for the Zephyrs at 113 lbs., 7-0, over Alex Issa.

At 145 lbs., Whitehall’s Hudson Saylor was close to pinning Caleb Baldwin in the last 45 seconds but lost 12-6.

“Those are the matches we need to win,” said Cunningham. “120 is another one. We need to win a close match like that. We can’t lose in the last couple seconds of a match when we’re winning 3-0 at one point, controlling the match and then having some breakdowns.”

Nolan Schmeckenbecher almost made it three in a row for the Zephyrs at 120 lbs., leading in the second period before Aiden Horn won 5-4.

“The guys making those mistakes, they come in the room, work hard every day. They’re mostly young kids so I’m proud of the fact that they’re out there wrestling to the best of their ability, wrestling hard. They’ve just got to learn a little bit about wrestling smart.”

Whitehall’s Johnny Colon at 126 lbs., Tyler Cunningham at 132 lbs., Xavier Arner at 152 lbs., and Melquan Warren at 189 lbs., all won their matches for the Zephyrs.

“They wrestled well. They wrestled well,” said Coach Cunningham. “Every one of our guys went and wrestled the best they could.”

Emmaus’s Drew Schmidt pinned Preston Saylor at 160 lbs., Jack Brion pinned Elijah Brito at 172 lbs., and Trevor Gitski won at 285 lbs. against Anthony Saed. At 215 lbs., Jared Groller won by forfeit for the Hornets.

“Like I tell them all the time, you win some, you lose some, and guess what? There’s always tomorrow,” Cunningham said. “Get better every day. That’s the bottom line.”