The Palmerton girls junior high wrestling team has seen a solid foundation turn into something concrete.

The Bombers won the District 11 2A championship this season, showcasing the strength of a program that has continued to make tremendous progress.

“We’ve been saying it all year, that the future looks bright,” said Palmerton girls head coach Josh Rake, who has also helped usher in a successful girls program at the varsity level. “We’re really excited for the future. We’ve had one of the larger junior high teams, certainly not the largest. But it’s good to start growing from there. And I think it helps that I teach in the junior high so I can see these girls every day. They put in the hard work, they did everything that needed to be done, and it really is their accomplishment.”

The Bombers had five individual placewinners at the tournament, highlighted by Nickayla Tomsic’s championship at 148 pounds, while Rake was also named the Coach of the Year.

“It really hasn’t,” Tomsic said when asked if it had sunk in that she was a district champion. “Last season, I wasn’t as into it as I am this year, and I think that has really helped.”

As for her expectations going into districts?

“I thought I was going to get at least third place,” she said. “I wasn’t thinking I was going to get first. Having my dad (Jamie) as a coach has really helped me. He helps me whenever I need it.”

Now in her second year wrestling, Tomsic has connected with it in ways she hadn’t with other sports in the past.

“I’m not a sporty person. I didn’t really do sports before wrestling,” she said. “It really gives me something to look forward to after school and stuff like that.

“Being able to win was the best feeling in the world. I don’t know how to explain it.”

In addition to Tomsic, Palmerton also had Alexandria Silfies (83 pounds), Ayva Rodrigues (96 pounds), Sofia Amorim (103 pounds) and Nicole Jennings (200 pounds) place second, while Calleigh Pastier (110 pounds) finished third.

“This is my first year wrestling, and it’s been pretty fun,” said Rodrigues. “It’s been really nice to meet all the new girls and get to know them.”

Another first-year wrestler, Alexxa Winger, echoed those sentiments.

“And the work that we put in in the room will 100 percent help you during a match,” said Winger. “Everything just ties together in the end, and it’s the best feeling ever when you win that match.”

Amorim, who also does field hockey and track, is another first-year wrestler who has also taken to the sport quickly, and enjoys the unique challenges it presents.

“For wrestling, you are kind of on your own,” she said. “But even if you’re alone on the mat, you still have a team supporting you all the time. And I really enjoy seeing the other girls do well. I like seeing how much progress everyone is making, especially first-year girls.”

“These girls are fantastic,” added first-year wrestler McKenzi Smith. “There’s some real talent in the room. We’re all pushing each other, helping each other to get through the season.

“We do a lot for each other. And we have a few second-year girls, and they really help us, and they’re girls that we look up to in the room. I think that definitely helps the first-year girls.”

And many of those girls have come in with an open mind to what the sport is, and have been eager to learn as they’ve gotten into it.

“I just wanted to try it and see what it was like and have fun,” said Jennings, another first-year wrestler. “My friend told me to come to a practice and I did, and I liked it. Next year I want to wrestle more matches.”

“I’m proud of achieving my goals and getting better,” added first-year wrestler Madison Lebrun, who also plays soccer. “I just want to keep getting better and learning more.”

That mindset is shared throughout the team, something that has many within the Bombers’ program believing they are building something special.

“It’s kind of a double-edged sword, because they’re all so young, that I don’t know that they realize placing at the District 11 Championships is a big deal,” said coach Jamie Tomsic. “For a team to do that, it’s even more rare, especially a team from a smaller school and stuff like that. Not that we haven’t had our own success, but with the numbers that we generally bring in, we usually don’t have a team large enough to pull that kind of a score together to be able to do that. I’m real proud of the girls. They did a great job.”