Catasauqua had been without a district wrestling champion for a decade since Rhaine Sziy took home the crown at 195 pounds in 2014. That streak came to an end Saturday evening as Chad Beller downed Notre Dame Green Pond’s Connor Smalley 5-4 in the ultimate tie break to claim the District XI AA title at 215 pounds.

The two big men finished regulation tied at 3, with each having scored a reversal and an escape. After a scoreless minute of sudden victory, the two exchanged escapes in tiebreaker periods one and two. After eight minutes of wrestling, the championship came down to whether Beller could escape within the 30 seconds allotted. It took him 14 ticks to write his name into Catty athletics history.

“It’s crazy. Two years ago, I’m a sophomore, first-year varsity. I didn’t even place and only went 16-14. Last year I placed third, sixth at regionals and made it to states and ended up going 38-11. That’s when I realized I can place at states and stuff. So, it’s an awesome feeling,” explained an exhausted Beller after the match.

Beller’s semifinal match was a rather routine 13-4 major decision over third-seeded Noah Schlofer of Northwestern. His quarterfinal bout was another matter entirely.

Beller and Wyatt Sherer hooked up for a wild, 20-15 contest where both wrestlers had two nearfall sequences in regulation and Beller needed a takedown with 22 seconds left in the third period to send the match to sudden victory. Five points in the extra period on Friday made Saturday’s magic possible.

Mikhail Hartranft will be joining Beller at the Southeast Regional this weekend at Freedom.

After a pin and a 9-3 decision got him into the semifinals, a loss to Stephen Korte of Jim Thorpe dropped the senior into a do-or-die situation to extend his Rough Rider wrestling career. He responded with an 11-5 win against Aiden Schlier of Tamaqua. He followed that up with a 6-1 win against Kaden Casey of North Schuylkill to take third at 121.

Hartranft spoke about wrestling to extend his career, “It’s terrifying honestly if you want me to be completely honest with you. It makes my knees shake a little bit, but knowing it’s a kid I wrestled in the past, that definitely gives you an edge, but it’s definitely really, really scary.”

Jonathan Cordon Pinto placed sixth at 139. Two losses to Saucon Valley’s Hector Mateo kept him out of the top 4 required to advance to regionals.