Catasauqua head wrestling coach Jonathan Reed is methodically learning and watching his young team mature and grow.

The Rough Riders have yet to win a dual meet with a five losses. They also finished 10th in their own tournament and recently 18th in the recent Jim Thorpe tournament.

“I thought we had an OK tournament at Jim Thorpe,” said Reed. “I was happy to take five kids back for the second day, but we easily could have had three more advance to day two.”

Reed stated that C.J. Beller, Mikhail Hartranft, Jonathan Cordon-Pinto, and Josh Rodriguez all made it to the second day.

Beller, a senior, finished third overall when he pinned Xaiden Schoch of Wallenpaupack in 2:03. Beller (12-1) earlier suffered his first loss of the season when he dropped a 5-3 decision to Brandon Stiehler of Pocono Mountain West. Beller has eight pins on the season.

Fellow senior Mikhail Hartranft finished seventh at 121, pinning teammate sophomore Evan Reed for the spot.

“CJ continued his strong season losing to a Class 3A state qualifier,” noted Reed. “He then dominated his last two matches to finish third. Mikhail had to wrestle even for the seventh/eighth spot, and it was interesting.

“Jonathan and Josh just missed out in placing, losing their matches in the blood round.”

Reed also noted that Miles Melendez (145) and Jacob Ramos (285), and Braden Bartholomew (189) just missed making it out of the second day.

The first-year head coach also praised the efforts of Bartholomew, Chris Wellington (172), and Brenden Takacs (ll picked up their first wins of the season.) He also complimented Gavin Hacker (114), Jonathan Rizzo (127), Elias Butrous (172), Jayden Nunez (189) for their dedication.

Reed knows his squad will be challenged over the next few weeks.

“Moving forward, we have a very, very busy week ahead with Northern Lehigh (Wednesday), Saucon Valley (Friday), and then the Mats on the Mecca in Pottsville (Saturday) where we’ll get six dual meets against some very good competition.

“We just have to keep working.”