For the Catasauqua wrestling team, it was a busy two days.

The Rough Riders traveled to Pottsville last Saturday (Jan. 8) to participate in the annual Mats on the Mecca dual meet tournament.

Catty wrestled five matches, defeating Mahanoy Area (40-30), and East Stroudsburg South, (51-24), while they suffered defeats to Northern Lebanon (54-21), Perkiomen Valley (61-14), and Pottsville (51-18). Overall, the Roughies took second in pool play.

The previous evening, the Roughies had a relatively tight match with state champion Saucon Valley, as they dropped a 46-30 decision at home.

Head coach Joe Russo saw enough pluses and minuses in the weekend.

“Against Saucon Valley, it was youth night,” said Russo. “We had an exciting environment, and the crowd was loud and into it.

“We got on a bus at 6:30 the following morning and wrestled five times in Pottsville. They (Pottsville) were undefeated at 14-0, Northern Lebanon was 9-1 and Perkiomen Valley was 8-2. They are bigger schools than us, and we knew we would have a tough time.”

At Pottsville, junior 121-pounder Mikhail Hartranft was 5-0, sophomore 152-pounder Miles Melendez was 4-0, senior 145-pounder Gavin Fehr was 4-1, junior 285-pounder Chad Beller was 4-1, freshman 114-pounder Evan Reed was 3-2.

After the tournament, Hartranft raised his record to 17-5, Fehr went to 19-1, and Beller moved to 19-2.

Russo noted the Roughies had some injuries, so that allowed sophomore 114-pounder Caroline Rodriguez, sophomore 127-pounder John Rizzo, sophomore 152-pounder Braden Bartholomew, senior 160-pounder Zach Rizzo, and junior 189-pounder Augustus Serrano to gain some mat time.

The head coach also noted that senior 139-pounder Vinnie Limandri went 2-3, and senior Javier Sobrado won his lone match (1-2) with a last-second escape.

“We had a few injured wrestlers, so some backups got to see some time,” added Russo. “Overall, we did a nice job.”

Even though he had a successful afternoon, Fehr expected a different outcome for his team.

“It didn’t go as planned,” said Fehr. “We had a lot of injuries. Hopefully, we’ll be all well, rested and healed in time for Palmerton next week.”

The Roughies won’t wrestle until Jan. 18 against the Bombers, which is the Roughies’ senior night.