BETHLEHEM - It was the end of the road for Pleasant Valley wrestlers during Saturday’s action at the District 11 3A tournament.

The Bears had six wrestlers in the consolation rounds, but came up empty in their pursuit of advancing to regionals next weekend.

“It’s a young team and I was pleased with the performance,” said first-year Pleasant Valley coach Ross Nunamaker. “I was glad that we had six kids advance to the second day. We had a few kids that we saw improvement from and that’s a big thing we took away from the tournament.”

Eddie Lauritsen (121) and Jason Schubert (189) went the furthest for Pleasant Valley, as they reached the third round of consolations at Liberty’s Memorial Gymnasium.

Lauritsen picked up a 1-0 win over Pottsville’s Cole Wagner in the second round of consolations before getting pinned by Whitehall’s Damond Pascoe in 3:48 to exit the tourney.

Schubert started the day strong with a fall in 2:14 over Pottsville’s Edgar Martinez, but then lost a 3-1 sudden victory bout with Stroudsburg’s Aaron Kirby to end his season.

Michael Pomilio (114), Aldin Vukal (152), Jimmy Barruzza (215) and Andrew Mihalichko (285) all lost their second round consi bouts to be eliminated earlier.

Nunamaker knows that a 4-16 dual meet season wasn’t what he had hoped for, but is confident things are moving in the right direction for a program that has lacked stability over the past four years.

“I give our kids all the credit because these guys have been through a lot the past couple of seasons with three different coaching staffs,” he said. “Most of our kids were underweight compared to the competition. We didn’t have anyone losing weight to drop down a class, so we want to get them stronger and better conditioned next year. I think the kids are starting to see what it takes to get to the next level. We had a good year even though our results may have not showed that.”

TEAM CHAMPS ... Bethlehem Catholic ran away with the team title over rival Nazareth, outscoring them 315.5 to 273 in the standings. The Hawks had 11 finalists, crowned six champions and advanced everyone of their wrestlers to regionals to lead the way. Nazareth had four champions and advanced 12 wrestlers to regionals.

INDIVIDUAL AWARDS ... Parkland’s Adrian Gacek (189) came away with the pinner award, notching four in a combined 6:48. Bethlehem Catholic’s Nate Desmond (114) took home the outstanding wrestler award.