Thursday morning is the most exciting event of the District 11 wrestling season – the seeding meeting for the D11 Duals tournament.
District 11 was ahead of the curve, first holding a duals championship in 1990, nine years before the PIAA would follow suit and add a team tournament. District 11 duals have long been one of the marquee events on the local calendar, and have produced a plethora of instant-classic results, particularly in the pre-state duals and “one team advances” eras. The event has been dominated by the “Big Four” with Easton (13 titles, 8 runner-ups), Bethlehem Catholic (8 titles, 2 runner-ups), Nazareth (7 titles, 10 runner-ups), and Northampton (7 titles, six runner-ups) claiming every title in the history of the event. Parkland (5), Liberty (1), and Blue Mountain (1) are the other schools to make finals. The longest streak of D11 dual championships is five, done by Easton twice, from 2001-2005 and again from 2010-2014, which Bethlehem Catholic has an opportunity to tie with a win on Saturday, though that is a little misleading as they were the only team to enter the tournament in 2021 (COVID). Becahi did win six in a row from 2011-2016, but the first four came in 2A, then they won back-to-back 3A titles after they moved up.
At the state level, District 11 has dominated state duals, winning 3A championships in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, and 2024 and runner-up in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2017, 2019, 2022, 2023, and 2024. Since District 11 was granted two state qualifiers starting in 2005, there has been an all D11 final in 3A in 2007, 2017, 2019, 2022, 2023, and 2024. It has not just been one team dominating, as Bethlehem Catholic, Easton, Nazareth, and Northampton have all won state titles, while Parkland has also made a run to the finals. Wilson, Northern Lehigh, Bethlehem Catholic, and Saucon Valley have all won 2A titles while Northwestern Lehigh and Notre Dame have also made runs to finals in the smaller school division.
Bethlehem Catholic is the clear favorite coming into the weekend. Where things get interesting are the bracket mechanics of the tournament. They no longer wrestle a “true second” match, where the finals loser has to wrestle the team that lost to the champion in semifinals (Liberty in 2019 lost in the D11 final, then lost the “true second” match to eventual state runner-up Northampton). In a year with a solid favorite, getting on the opposite side of the bracket is imperative to advance to the state tournament without a huge upset. Last season, Easton was the major beneficiary of their regular season wins over Becahi and Nazareth, because those two had to lock horns in semifinals with a state berth on the line while Easton had a relatively easy path to the final and the other spot in the state tournament.
The other wrinkle is Notre Dame getting forced up to 3A due to the transfer rules. The Crusaders are an excellent team and have been a dominant force in 2A for years. Adding them into the mix gives District 11 four of the top five teams in the state rankings, with #1 Becahi, #3 Notre Dame, #4 Nazareth, and #5 Easton (with #8 Northampton also in there for good measure). The decision around the 2/3/4 seeds has massive implications for the team state tournament.
District 11 uses power points for qualification, but a committee to seed the tournament (they wrestled true 2nd when the power points also placed you in the bracket, which was dumb because of the wildly different schedules D11 schools wrestle – with the elite teams having lots of out-of-state national events). So once the eight team field is set after the final duals Wednesday, the committee will meet Thursday morning to place the eight qualifying teams in the bracket. This will be one of the most controversial meetings they ever have.
Becahi will get the one seed. The Hawks have wins over Easton, Notre Dame, and Northampton, they outplaced Notre Dame and Northampton at Ironman, Nazareth and Notre Dame at Beast of the east, and outplaced Easton and Notre Dame at Escape the Rock. They are undefeated and an easy top seed. Interestingly, they are #2 in power points right now, but that can thankfully be ignored by the committee in an effort to get it right.
Where things get weird is 2-4. Notre Dame has only met Bethlehem Catholic in a dual, losing 34-24. They have destroyed the rest of their dual schedule, but 71-0 wins over Salisbury don’t move the needle. The only other common scheduling they have are some big national tournaments, where they finished behind Becahi and Northampton at Ironman, ahead of Northampton but behind Bethlehem Catholic, Easton, and Nazareth at Beast of the East, and behind Easton and Bethlehem Catholic at Escape the Rock. Duals are different than tournaments, so I do not know how the seeding committee will weigh these results, but those are the only events they’ve been at with some of the other 3A schools present. They could very easily be seeded ahead of Easton as being more competitive with Becahi and only having one loss opposed to the Rovers two, or they could be behind Easton because they’ve finished behind them at both events they were both entered in, and they could be behind Nazareth at the Blue Eagles are “undefeated” in duals compared to Notre Dame’s one loss, but Nazareth didn’t wrestle Becahi. But Nazareth also finished ahead of Notre Dame in their common tournament.
Easton is in the weirdest spot. They lost to Bethlehem Catholic 38-20, so slightly worse than Notre Dame. They also “lost” to Nazareth 27-27 on criteria, but that was the match that went viral across the wrestling country after Easton won the match 28-27, but had a team point deducted when Kurtis Crossman took his headgear off and tossed it to the bench after the decisive final match. I do not know how the seeding committee is going to interpret that result, which is a loss on paper, but wasn’t exactly a loss on the mat – and one of the things pointed out at the time would be the possibility of a “jury nullification” by the seeding committee on that result. Easton finished ahead of Nazareth at Beast of the East and the Hurricane Classic, and finished ahead of Notre Dame at Beast of the East and Escape the Rock. They were runner-up at Top Hat to out-of-district Connellsville (state #2). There is an argument for Easton to be the #2 – they’ve finished ahead of Nazareth twice in tournaments and have the softest loss to them possible in a dual, and they’ve finished ahead of Notre Dame in both events they’ve entered. There’s also an argument for Easton to be the #4, as they have a head-to-head loss to Nazareth, and two losses to Notre Dame’s one in duals, and they have a common opponent in Becahi who Notre Dame wrestled slightly closer. I have no idea which way that is going to go.
Nazareth has the dual “win” over Easton, they also beat Northampton in a wild dual where they were facing certain defeat, and Cooper Wenrich headlocked and pinned Gabe Ballard while trailing 13-0 in the final match. Nazareth finished ahead of Northampton and Notre Dame, but behind Easton at Beast of the East, and behind Easton and Northampton at the Hurricane Classic. They won Virginia Duals, against all out of state competition, and were runners-up at Cumberland Valley’s season opening tournament to an out-of-district foe (Bishop McDevitt). Had Northampton hung on in that dual, I think Nazareth’s seeding would be easier. But like Easton, there are logical arguments for Nazareth at 2 (undefeated with a head-to-head over Easton), 3 (Easton has beaten them in two tournaments and the loss in the dual is flimsy, but they’ve finished ahead of ND in a tourney and are undefeated), or 4 (Notre Dame goes ahead of Easton and Nazareth goes behind Easton) and I have no idea which one will hold.
Here's what I think will happen – I think the committee is going to punt the Easton/Nazareth dual question by making them the 2 and 3. They might even make Nazareth the 2 and Easton the 3 just to keep the “result” the same, and bump Notre Dame to the 4 so Easton isn’t penalized for the headgear toss, but they don’t have to directly compare all three schools. Then you have a field that looks like (I’m assuming on the final three, but I think this is how the power points will hold in terms of qualifiers, and Emmaus is clearly the #6, and Whitehall thumped Parkland head-to-head, and I don’t think Freedom can pass Parkland to qualify):
- Bethlehem Catholic
- Nazareth
- Easton
- Notre Dame
- Northampton
- Emmaus
- Whitehall
- Parkland
That’s probably the right outcome, and makes Easton-Nazareth II must see television on Saturday afternoon, plus gets a fun ND-Northampton dual first thing in the morning, with the winner seeing Bethlehem Catholic (who thumped Northampton, 42-20 but have kind of a tough match-up with ND) in the early afternoon session. Even Easton-Emmaus is a tasty opener, with Emmaus having some really good individuals that will get good bouts with Easton (Caciolo-Salamone, or Albanese-Salamone/Caciolo-Fenner if they want to bump, Scott-Hammerstone, Sallit-Cosover). It’s a highlight event on the calendar, probably will advance out at least one state finalist, and will have the most intriguing bracket mechanics of any D11 dual I can remember. Buckle up.
