District duals on Saturday had a lot of action, but very few surprises for the Konkrete Kids. The seeding committee had bumped up Northampton to the number 4 spot after they had finished seventh in the official district ranking.

The K-Kids lived up to their seed as they took down fifth-seeded Whitehall 38-26 in the quarterfinals before falling to top-seeded Easton 38-18, just one week after their regular season dual with the Rovers.

There was some buzz in the gym of a potential Whitehall upset after the Zephyrs came out of the first 4 bouts (215, 285, 107, 114) with a 9-7 lead and strongly favored wrestlers at 172 and 189.

However, the Kids put an end to that talk by winning the next 5 bouts, all with bonus.

Ryan Marano majored Rocco DeLucia 12-3 at 121.

Colin Marano turned an 8-3 lead into a third-period fall in 5:19 against Damond Pascoe.

Trey Wagner pinned Nolan Schmeckenbecher in 1:30.

At 139, Chase Grabfelder had a 9-7 lead entering the final period, but earned a pin in 5:20.

Austin Noe put a punctuation mark on the match with a 39 second pin that gave Northampton a 35-9 lead and clinched the victory with 4 bouts remaining.

In the semifinal match against Easton, Northampton won 5 of the 13 bouts, just like they had the week before.

While Gavin Grell at heavyweight was the only Northampton winner to wrestle the same opponent in consecutive weeks, Gabe Ballard (fall in 5:36), Trey Wagner, and Austin Noe were also 2-for-2 against Easton.

The path to a K-Kids’ win was always going to be narrow. The Rovers are just better this year. But head coach Joe Provini took a shot at mixing up his roster by inserting Luke Rogan at 127 and bumping wrestlers up in weight class from 133 through 152.

The Kids did win 3 of those 4 bouts with Colin Marano earning a 5-2 decision over Brendan Bowman, Trey Wagner posting a 1-0 decision against Jaron Trimmer, and Austin Noe a 4-0 victor versus Quentin Hammerstone.

However, Provini was looking for more. He explained, “It had to be the perfect dual. We needed bonus at heavyweight, at 139, and we needed 121 and that would have given us a shot. Credit to them, those guys fought bonus. We gave up bonus and they won that close one.”

The team now has a few weeks to prepare for individual duals which start February 23.

On Tuesday, the EPC hosted its first-ever girls wrestling invitational. Mylea Lambert was the champion at 170 with a pin against Gracie Haflich of Liberty in the final and was voted by the coaches as the tournament’s outstanding wrestler.

Dani Glaser reached the final at 235 but was pinned by Addyson Munro of Liberty.

Jaida Onyango finished fourth at 112.

Individual districts for the girls are Sunday Feb. 18 at Easton Middle School.