The 2025-26 wrestling season officially concluded at Sunday afternoon’s Hall of Fame and Scholarship Awards Ceremony hosted by the District 11 Wrestling Coaches Association at the Steel Club in Hellertown.
Bethlehem Catholic’s Keanu Dillard, Mahanoy Area’s Kyler Quick and Southern Lehigh’s Mai Graham took home the scholar-athlete awards in the 3A boys, 2A boys and girls categories, respectively.
Dillard will be attending Lehigh University in the fall to major in finance, bringing a laundry list of academic and athletic achievements with him. He is a member of the National Honor Society, a student council representative, class president, student-body vice president, a student-athlete character council member and a committee chairperson for parking spot painting and campus beautifications while finishing ninth in his class academically.
The future Mountain Hawk is also just the second four-time state champion from District 11, following Catasauqua’s Matt Gerhard from 1981-1984, leaving the Golden Hawks with a career record of 147-10 and a perfect postseason record in his four-year career.
Quick was also a member of the National Honor Society and student council as well as Envirothon, Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), theater arts, internet club, action youth group, a meals on wheels volunteer, a community youth wrestling volunteer and a Faith Church usher. He finished his career with a 141-51 record, including his first district championship as a senior and three regional and state championship appearances.
“It’s amazing,” Quick said of receiving the award. “My season didn’t end the way I wanted to – I wanted to medal [at states] – and some injuries kind of prevented that, but this is a great reflection of my career and my season.
“I wasn’t planning on being a wrestler. I was originally going to play basketball, but my dad convinced me to join wrestling, and I’m happy I did.”
He will study biology and pre-physical therapy at Villanova, Ursinus or Misericordia.
Graham began her high school career wrestling on the boys team and will graduate as one of the pillars of the newly-created Southern Lehigh girls wrestling program. She posted a record of 65-10 over the last two seasons, winning a district championship and finishing no worse than fourth in the district, regional and state tournaments across her two full seasons with the Spartans.
“This is a really prestigious, really amazing award, and I’m really grateful for everything,” Graham said. “I’m grateful for my family, my sister, my brother, all my coaches … I’m really grateful for everything. All of my amazing support system definitely helped me to get where I am now.”
Graham will continue her wrestling career at Sacred Heart University where she will also study exercise science. She is a member of the National Honor Society, a youth girls wrestling coach, serves in her seniors club, a member of the Animal Rescue Foundation and a member of Habitat for Humanity.
The committee also officially welcomed Joe Caramanica, Derek Jenkins, Josh Kindig, Tod Kindig and Jim Trusky to the hall of fame for their contributions to local wrestling.
Caramanica graduated from Nazareth High School in 2005 and North Carolina State in 2009, but not before winning two state championships for the Blue Eagles and an ACC title for the Wolfpack in 2007. He is also a member of the Nazareth Area Blue Eagle Athletic Hall of Fame.
Parkland’s Derek Jenkins finished his career with a 42-0 senior season and a state championship after winning district and regionals as a junior and finishing third in the state tournament. He went on to qualify for the NCAA Tournament all four years at Rider University, earning the school’s athlete of the year award in the 2002-03 academic school year.
Josh Kindig and his late father, Tod, helped spearhead a revolution of elite wrestling in the Schuylkill League together as Tod coached a pair of state champions, Cortlandt Choate and Corey Keener, with Josh capturing a pair of state titles in between. Josh went from Blue Mountain High School to Oklahoma State where he reached the NCAA championship in 2014 before losing in sudden victory.
Jim Trusky was Mahanoy Area’s first state champion in 1982 and proceeded to coach at Pocono Mountain High School and Blue Mountain High School. He is one of only two state champions at Mahanoy Area and commended his former coach, Paul Wartman, during his speech.
District 11 scholar-athlete nominees
Class 2A boys
Evan Reed, Catasauqua; Carter Hontz, Lehighton; Cadyn McGraw, North Schuylkill; Luke Fugazzotto, NW Lehigh; Luca Albanese, Pen Argyl; Samuel Krauss, Salisbury; William Behun, Tamaqua; Camron Green, Williams Valley
Class 3A boys
Kody Ward, Bangor; Owen Woll, Blue Mountain; Jonathan Adjin-Tettey, ES South; Nicholas Salamone, Easton; Xayden Sallit, Emmaus; Stephen Korte, Jim Thorpe; Kaedon Hall, Liberty; Brayden Zuercher, Nazareth; Trey Wagner, Northampton; Dominic Sumpolec, NDGP; Jorge Moya, Parkland; Anthony DePasqua, PM West; Griffin King, Southern Lehigh; James Hopkins, Whitehall
Girls
Aeriel Stallworth, Catasauqua; Fiona Clare, ES South; Danielle Willaims, Easton; Olivya Kroope, Emmaus; Ellie Rumbalski, Liberty; Ella Daubert, Nazareth; Phoebe Smith, North Schuylkill; Emilee Gaughran, Northampton; Angelina Spachman, Parkland.
The essay winners, from left: North Schuylkill’s Cadyn McGraw, East Stroudsburg South’s Fiona Clare, and Easton’s Nick Salamone. (Photo courtesy of Aaron Morekin)
Essay winners
The committee selected East Stroudsburg South’s Fiona Clare, North Schuylkill’s Cadyn McGraw and Easton’s Nick Salamone as winners of the essay competition for their writing on what wrestling means to them.
“Wrestling is beyond just a sport. It is the only place I am myself,” Clare said. “For the first time in my life, I was myself, not a face in the crowd. Wrestling has shown me that I could be number one to myself. I never needed a medal to tell me I was special. I just needed to feel it within.
“I may have started late and not had a perfect support system, but I have something those girls might never understand: I know exactly what I am fighting for.”
McGraw penned, “Wrestling has taught me how to handle pressure, learn from failure and stay committed to my goals, even when things didn’t go as planned. It has shaped my life not just because of the wins but because of what it has taught me through moments of adversity. Wrestling has shown me that resilience is not about avoiding failure, but about how one responds and grows from it.”
“Wins are not the destination, they are milestones. Losses are not failures, they are lessons. Each match, regardless of outcome, offers something to build on. This understanding has instilled in me a quiet confidence, one not rooted in results, but in preparation and perseverance,” Salamone said. “For me, wrestling is not confined to a season or a scoreboard. It is a daily standard. It is the discipline to prepare, the courage to compete and the resilience to continue. It is the understanding that success is earned in unseen moments long before the whistle.”
Derek Bast is a freelance writer who can be found on Twitter/X at @derek_bast or reached by email at derekbast11@gmail.com.