Last week, Catasauqua’s wrestling program was in the hunt for their first dual meet of the season against Palmerton.

However, injuries affected the Rough Riders’ staring lineup, and Catty fell to Blue Bombers, 42-30. The defeat dropped the Roughies to 0-8 in dual meets this season, but it hasn’t discouraged first-year head coach Jonathan Reed and his young squad.

“We lost a close match to Palmerton,” said Reed. “We thought we could get our first win of the season, but we have had a tough past two weeks with kids not being able to work through the grind of a full wrestling season.

“Therefore, we were short on kids and had to forfeit a few weights where we would normally have kids.”

Against Palmerton, Gavin Hacker (114), Evan Reed (121) had falls, and Jacob Ramos (285) and Chad Beller (215) had forfeits. Jonathan Cordon-Pinto (139) and Braden Bartholomew (189) both recorded wins.

A few days later, the Roughies were one of 53 teams in the prestigious Coal Cracker Tournament in Lehighton, and they finished 30th overall.

At the Coal Cracker Tournament, both Beller and Mikhail Hartranft (121) both finished fifth in their respective weight classes.

Beller beat Crestwood’s Lincoln Bibla, 9-5, and Hartranft pinned Jim Thorpe’s Steven Korte in 2:39. Hartranft lost to defending state champion Faith Christian’s Gauge Botero in the semifinals.

Reed was pleased with his grapplers’ performances in the tournament.

“The Coal Cracker was a very tough tournament, and it was moved back a day because of the weather,” added Reed. “There were state-ranked individuals and teams that competed. After a long tow days of wrestling, both Chad Beller and Mikhail Hartranft both placed fifth. They both went 6-2.

“Jonathan Cordon-Pinto went 3-2, and Evan Reed and Gavin Hacker both went 2-2.”

With the tournament, Beller raised his record to 26-5 with 16 falls, Hartranft upped his mark to 20-14 with 17 pins, Cordon-Pinto went to 19-12 with 11 falls, and Reed bumped to 17-16.

In the Coal Cracker JV tournament, Ramos took first, Bartholomew was second, and Josh Rodriguez (215) was fifth in their respective weights.

Reed also lauded the efforts of Jonathan Rizzo (133), Brenden Takacs (139), Aeriel Stallworth (145), and Chris Wellington (160) for their performances in the JV tournament.

The head coach was anxious for the match against Northwestern Wednesday before the upcoming district tournament in a few weeks.

“We were looking forward to the Northwestern match at home,” said Reed. “We then will have a few weeks off to get ready for the district tournament, where we can be successful.”