The Northampton wrestling team wrapped up a successful regional tournament by pushing through all six of their initial qualifiers on to the state tournament this weekend in Hershey.

Brayden Wenrich was the only regional champion as he dominated his first three foes with a pin and two tech falls before facing a rematch from his district final with Bethlehem Catholic’s Nico Emili.

Wenrich scored an early first-period takedown and a second period escape to knock off the Golden Hawk freshman 4-0. There are a lot of talented wrestlers at states, but a third postseason tussle in a final between these two would not surprise many.

There were two other rematches of district finals involving Konkrete Kids.

At 127, Gabe Ballard and Becahi’s Keanu Dillard breezed through their respective portions of the bracket to meet in a final for the second straight week. Unlike last week, this one ended after 6 minutes with Dillard claiming a 5-2 win.

All of the scoring took place in the second period with Dillard grabbing an ankle to initiate a takedown sequence to go up 4-0 after an early escape. Ballard did manage to score a reversal, but got ridden out in the third period.

Trey Wagner and Jack Campbell clashed in the 133-pound final. Wagner had beaten Campbell the previous three times the two had wrestled this year, including last week’s district final, but the Blue Eagle scored a third period reversal and late takedown to claim the regional crown 5-2. Campbell was named OW.

The other three state qualifiers all made the semifinals and successfully avoided the nerve-wracking, do-or-die fifth-place bout in consolations.

Senior heavyweight Gavin Grell is headed to Hershey for a second year. He was knocked into consolations after a 4-0 loss to eventual regional champion and last year’s state 6th place winner, Maxwell Roy of St. Joe’s Prep.

Grell responded with a first period pin to punch his ticket to states and was awarded third place when his opponent in the consolation final took an injury forfeit.

Senior Ryan Marano earned his first-ever trip to the state tournament with an emphatic 12-2 major decision over Jasiah Pagan of Liberty in consolations. The two had split a pair of matches at districts, but Marano dominated the 100-match winner when it mattered most.

He eventually finished fourth and spoke about qualifying for Hershey, “I had big goals for this season and placing at states was one of them. I’m excited to walk out and wrestle. I know I can compete with all of them. I’ll go out there and have fun. It’s my senior year, my last year, so I’ll just want to remember my matches.”

Junior Chase Grabfelder also earned his first trip to states, finishing third at 152. He lost a wild match in the semifinals in which he led 8-4 with only seconds remaining in the second period before getting reversed and giving up back points. He was eventually pinned in the third.

He took his disappointment out on his next two foes, running up a 14-0 score on Luis Desilva of Frankford before pinning him and decking Ivan Bonilla of Freedom in 24 seconds to take third place.

Grabfelder spoke about his postseason success, “I’ve been putting in the work at practice every day, doing everything right. Taking my vitamins and everything like that, just to come out and perform the best I can.”

As a team, the K-Kids placed fourth out of the 50 teams that sent wrestlers to the tournament.

Team scores:

(1) Nazareth 161.0, (2) Bethlehem Catholic 141.0, (3) Notre Dame-Green Pond 138.5, (4) Northampton 127.0, (5) Easton 116.5, (6) Emmaus 94.0