CJ Horvath had a wonderful holiday break and he hopes it’s the springboard to a fruitful winter on the mats after coming home from the Bethlehem Holiday Wrestling Classic with a 121-pound title and the Outstanding Wrestler award.

Horvath knocked off Quakertown’s Mason Ziegler 6-5 in last week’s championship match to round out an impressive championship run.

The sixth-seeded senior had to battle in each of his last three bouts, defeating Wilson West Lawn’s Mike Garcia 8-7 in the quarters, before outlasting Northampton’s Carson Wagner 4-3 in the semifinals before coming back to knock off Ziegler.

Freedom head coach Anthony Marino knew how important last week’s title was for Horvath and what it can mean for him moving forward this season.

“It was huge for CJ to win the title this year,” said Marino. “He won it as a freshman beating really good guys that weren’t really established as top competitors at that point in their high school careers. CJ went in excited for the challenge and wanting to see where he stood with these guys that were now very well established. He’s always been a guy that would hang with these top guys but always shy or making one little mistake that would cost him these high profile matches. He really competed well keeping his head in high stakes matches even when everything was going wrong like slipping on the edge of the mat and giving up a takedown in his quarterfinals match. This is something that CJ has really been able to get past with staying focused and not letting his emotions get the better of him. I think he now knows he is one of the top guys in the state and has a very good shot at a state gold if he continues to work hard and stay focused.”

Horvath was one of two Freedom finalists, as Jared Karabinus (171) also reached the championship mat, but came up short in a 7-0 defeat to Nazareth’s Dominic Wheatley.

The loss was hopefully a learning lesson that Karabinus can grow from over the next two months.

“I think Jared learned a lot from his loss in the finals,” said Marino. “Jared has always been the type of kid to go out and just throw the kitchen sink at his opponents and not wrestle reserved, which is something that I love about his style. Jared learned that he has to continue to wrestle through every position and be able to transition to three and sometimes four moves with top guys that don’t stop moving. I think this loss has lit a fire in Jared making him want to push even harder than he has been. I don’t think the score of his finals match really reflected how well he wrestled. He was just a step behind his opponent and had some trouble finishing his attacks. He is the type of kid that wants to wrestle the best and doesn’t run away from competition, so I think the next time they meet it will be a different match with hopefully a different outcome.”

Horvath and Karabinus were the only Freedom wrestlers to medal at the event, while Liberty had three wrestlers come away with hardware.

Ryan Santiago (152) was the lone finalist for the Hurricanes, but unfortunately dropped his finals bout to Council Rock South’s Gavin Cole 5-3. Kam Abboud took sixth for Liberty, losing to Delaware Valley’s Dom Moyer 3-2 in the medal round.

Jasiah Pagan rounded out Liberty’s trio with a seventh place finish after pinning Parkland’s Eli Russ in 3:27.