Catasauqua’s wrestling team is gradually peaking toward the right time.

The Rough Riders recently took seventh place in the 12-team Colonial League championships and had a few place winners. Earlier in the week, the Roughies dropped a 45-27 decision to Pleasant Valley, a bout that easily could have gone the other way.

“In the loss against Pleasant Valley, it could have been a much closer match,” said Roughies’ head coach Jon Reed. “We were missing some of our top guys in the lineup.

“We had a nice showing in the league championships, and probably wrestled our best so far in the tournament.”

In the league tournament, C.J. Beller and Jacob Ramos all recorded runner-up finishes at their respective 215 and 285 weight classes. Mikhail Hartranft (121) and Evan Reed (127) both notched third-place medals. Jonathan Cordon-Pinto and Gavin Hacker both took fourth at 139 and 114 pounds respectively.

“C.J. Beller lost a tight match and got caught on his back and was pinned,” recalled Reed. “He will be looking for some redemption on that opponent as we move toward districts. Jacob Ramos has an impressive showing in his weight class.

“Mikhail Hartranft too third and beat a kid who beat him from Northern Lehigh last week. Evan Reed wrestled a very good tournament and took third.”

Hartranft - who is 15-8 overall - is confident his best wrestling is yet to come. He and his teammates will compete in the prestigious Coal Cracker Invitational this weekend.

“I do not think I’ve peaked yet,” said Hartranft. “Usually around postseason, I always peak. But I’m expecting something big from myself at the Coal Cracker tournament.

“I’ve stopped the flash moves that I usually tend to do and have stuck with the fundamentals of wrestling because those are the moves that I have used to win big matches. We’ll see how things go this weekend and I’m excited.”

Reed definitely has seen improvement that can reach another level.

“I would say we are wrestling better as the season goes on,” said Reed. “We have a ways to go to ‘peak,’ but we are going to continue to get better every day.”