Chad Beller can honestly say that he earned his district gold medal in the District 11 Class 2A 215-ppund bracket at Freedom High School.

Beller certainly had a grueling two days of competition.

The Rough Rider second-seeded senior worked his way through a 20-15 decision over Lehighton’s Wyatt Scherer, a 13-4 major decision over Northwestern’s Noah Schlofer, and a 5-4 ultimate tiebreaker over Notre Dame’s Conner Smalley to bring home the first Catty gold medal since Rhaine Sziy won one in 2014.

Teammate Mikhail Hartranft took a bronze medal in the 121-pound bracket. Both grapplers will advance to the regional round back at Freedom this weekend.

Beller fought through two near pins in his opening match. He lost to Scherer, 15-7, in last year’s district tournament.

“It was a very stressful first match,” reflected Beller, who is 30-5 overall. “I struggled with him, and I don’t know why. He’s just really funky and has good hips. He would slip out of everything and catch me on my back. But I dug deep and came back in the third period.”

Beller was more cautious in his final two matches.

“I had a really good semifinal match and was confident going into the finals. I took the finals a little bit slower and wrestled smarter. I didn’t want to take bad shots or do anything stupid to get out of position.”

Hartranft, who lost to North Schuylkill’s Caden Kasy, 6-1, in the semifinals, is looking ahead.

“I’m oaky with how districts went,” said Hartranft, who is 25-12 overall. “All that matters is moving on. I was one step short of the ultimate goal in making the finals and winning districts, but I came back with the next best thing. I am super proud of CJ (Chad Beller) winning districts, as he worked as hard as possible every single day, and it paid off.

“I’m excited for regionals and happy that I was able to move on. Regionals won’t be easy for both of us, but I am excited to see where we’re going to end up.”

Head coach Jonathan Reed liked what he saw from Beller.

“Chad had the entire gym at Freedom watching his first match,” said Reed. “His opponent had him on his back twice and was nearly pinned in a back-and-forth match. He didn’t wrestle his best match, and had all the coaches a little bit scared. Winners find a way to win, and that’s exactly what he did.

“He left nothing to chance in his semifinal match and beat a familiar opponent in a major decision, the best I have seen him wrestle yet. He wrestled a super smart match in the finals and kept his composure, being able to escape in the final 30-second rideout for the win.”

Reed also was impressed with Hartranft. Both wrestlers will need to finish among the top-six in their respective weight classes to qualify for states.

“Mikhail wrestled a good tournament and came back strong after his semifinal match defeat,” added Reed. “He needed to win his next match to qualify for regionals and won, and then came back and wrestled very well in the third-and fourth-place match. He will be looking for revenge this weekend, as he tries to qualify for states.”

Reed noted that the Roughies took nine wrestlers to districts and five of them made it to the second day of competition. Jonathan Cordon-Pinto, who took sixth at 139, Ever Reed (127) and Braden Bartholomew (189) all made it through the opening round.

The first-year head coach is optimistic about the future.

“All of them that made it to the second day are underclassmen,” said Reed. “They will use their experience to help them train with hopes of qualifying for regionals next year.”