The first shot at postseason glory for area wrestlers begins in earnest on Thursday.

Four Times News area teams qualified for the District 11 Team Championships. Jim Thorpe, Lehighton, Northwestern and Tamaqua all will be competing in the Class 2A bracket.

The Indians earned the No. 5 seed and will face 12-seed Pine Grove in the first round. The Raiders are the seventh-seed and will face No. 10 Northwestern, while the Olympians are seeded ninth and will wrestle No. 8 Catasauqua.

A win in the opening round guarantees each team will wrestle a quarterfinal match Thursday, and that they will wrestle again on Saturday.

Northern Lehigh, Liberty and Northampton will be the host sites for Thursday’s first round and quarterfinal matches. The consolation rounds, semifinals, finals and any true-second place matches, if necessary, will be Saturday at Freedom.

Bethlehem Catholic (3A) and Saucon Valley (2A) are the defending champions.

The top-two teams in each class advance to the PIAA tournament.

DISTRICT 11 TEAM DUALS

(Top 2 teams in each class advance to the PIAA tournament)

Thursday

Class 2A

First round, 6 p.m.

at Northampton

No. 9 Jim Thorpe (5-4) vs. No. 8 Catasauqua (8-4)

at Northern Lehigh

No. 5 Lehighton (9-4) vs. No. 12 Pine Grove (5-12)

No. 11 Tri-Valley (8-7) vs. No. 6 North Schuylkill (9-7)

at Liberty

No. 7 Tamaqua (9-7) vs. No. 10 Northwestern (6-6)

Quarterfinals, 7:30

at Northampton

No. 1 Saucon Valley (14-0) vs. Jim Thorpe/Catasauqua winner

at Northern Lehigh

No. 4 Mahanoy Area (9-2) vs. Lehighton/Pine Grove winner

No. 3 Wilson (15-3) vs. Tri-Valley/North Schuylkill winner

at Liberty

No. 2 Notre Dame-GP (7-2) vs. Tamaqua/Northwestern winner

Class 3A

First round, 6 p.m.

at Liberty

No. 9 Emmaus (11-6) vs. No. 8 Freedom (15-5)

No. 5 Nazareth (13-3) vs. No. 12 Whitehall (11-7)

No. 7 Easton (9-3) vs. No. 10 Parkland (10-5)

at Northampton

No. 11 Blue Mountain (9-5) vs. No. 6 Pottsville (14-2)

Quarterfinals, 7:30

at Liberty

No. 1 Liberty (16-2) vs Emmaus/Freedom winner

No. 4 Stroudsburg (16-3) vs. Nazareth/Whitehall winner

No. 2 Bethlehem Catholic (9-1) vs. Easton/Parkland winner

at Northampton

No. 3 Northampton (13-2) vs. Blue Mountain/Pottsville winner

Saturday (at Freedom)

Class 2A

First-round consolations, 9 a.m.

Semifinals, 10:45

Second-round consolations, 12:30 p.m.

Consolation final, championship match, 5:30

True second-place match (if needed), 7:30

Class 3A

First-round consolations, 9

Semifinals, 10:45

Second-round consolations, 12:30 p.m.

Consolation final, championship match, 5:30

True second-place match (if needed), 7:30