Bethlehem Catholic may be finding their groove as they head to the middle of January, as the Hawks finished seventh at the Escape the Rock tournament over the weekend.

Kollin Rath (152) came away with another individual tournament title this season, notching a 4-3 win over Matt Henrich of Southern Regional (NJ).

It was the third title of the season for Rath, who led the charge again for the Hawks, who placed four wrestlers overall.

“Kollin seems to be on a cycle similar to last year,” said head coach Mike Cole. “When he continues to string together position fighting and movement, he creates opportunities to score points and executes.

“Generally our wrestlers are developing in the areas we have been focusing on. Our ability to get out of the bottom on high performing wrestlers is getting better. We have taken a big step up on our execution of skills we have been working on to achieve this.

“Our top wrestlers also made a noticeable improvement. We had a couple of matches where riding for 30 seconds or two minutes was a key part of winning. Our mindset seemed better. Our wrestlers this weekend were competing to score and find points. We did not see the fear of losing in their performances.”

Keanu Dillard (121) also reached the finals, but fell to Faith Christian’s Gauge Botero 11-4. It was Dillard’s first appearance in the finals of a major tournament this season and despite the loss Cole was happy.

“Keanu performed well throughout the tournament from every position,” he said. “His pressure on top was there when he needed it. His ability to score from bottom was there too. And, seeing him incorporate the little strategy tweaks we discuss shows his high wrestling IQ. Keanu wrestled every match with a strong desire to score points. His attacks in the finals were excellent. I haven’t re-watched film yet but I believe every time he was scored on in the finals, it was off his attack. No one likes losing but, there was a lot of good stuff in his finals match.”

Other place-winners included Marco Frinzi taking fifth place at 139 and Reef Dillard settling for sixth at 114.

“Reef Dillard and Marco Frinzi had significant performances too,” Cole said. “We are very proud of the strength of mindset it took for them to recover from last weeks duals and focus on the next thing in front of them. Their execution was impressive across every match they wrestled.”

The Hawks (4-1) get back into dual action this week at Pleasant Valley on Wednesday and then a big EPC showdown at Northampton Saturday night. Becahi suffered a rare feat last week, losing to Easton 30-26. It was their first loss to the Rovers since 2011.