https:\/\/www.mcall.com\/2026\/02\/19\/faith-christians-adam-waters-on-the-verge-of-piaa-history-after-a-rough-start-in-wrestling\/<\/a><\/p>\nGerhard talked about the unavoidable pressure of trying to become a four-time state champion when that\u2019s all everyone wants to talk about.<\/p>\n
No one close to Waters and Dillard could deny it.<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of us know what it\u2019s like to step on the stage with that amount of pressure,\u201d Faith Christian coach Ben Clymer said, \u201cbeing so close to an elite group in history. For [Scott] to keep it that close and for Adam to keep himself composed and being diligent in his stalking and hand fighting and coming up with a takedown late, I\u2019m really proud of him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both four-time state champions acknowledged the stress they were dealing with leading up to their last high school match on the first Saturday night in March.<\/p>\n
Waters was asked after beating Scott the last time if he was really nervous before a match. He didn\u2019t flinch.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike 20 minutes ago,\u201d he said. \u201cMy legs got really heavy. But the thing is, I know that I keep telling myself that if I get to my offense, I\u2019m the best wrestler in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dillard wanted to get to his offense more often than he did in the postseason, but he made a career of being a stellar counter-attacker and a tremendous scrambler. He would take an opponent\u2019s solid shot attempt and turn it into a takedown for him.<\/p>\n
The Lehigh commit won 63 matches by fall and another 31 by technical fall, but he showed his ability to win tight matches against stellar opponents. He was 41-9 in matches determined by decision. The only loss in his career by bonus came against New Jersey\u2019s four-time state champion Anthony Knox (13-3) in the 2024 Beast of the East final.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody is always trying to one-up me,\u201d Dillard said, \u201cso I have to just keep working hard to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Waters is headed to Ohio State to compete for a starting spot on one of the nation\u2019s top-5 programs, a far cry from where he came as a pudgy eighth-grader whose best talent was his hatred for losing.<\/p>\n
Dillard is staying close to home at Lehigh, a consistent top-15 program with a well-respected coach in Pat Santoro where he could fit into a lineup with Quakertown grad Mason Ziegler at 125.<\/p>\n
Wherever they go and whatever they do, Dillard and Waters will forever be linked on a short list in the nation\u2019s most storied wrestling state.<\/p>\n
Their careers began with great expectations and ended when they delivered on the great anticipation of becoming part of history.<\/p>\n
Senior writer Tom Housenick can be reached at thousenick@mcall.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keanu Dillard\u2019s highly anticipated varsity debut for Bethlehem Catholic was delayed six weeks because of an injury. He…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,305,25331,726,432],"class_list":["post-151493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-high-school-sports","tag-high-school-wrestling","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Faith](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2026-03-07_4468-FCA189-Adam-Waters.jpg\")
Faith Christian Academy\u2019s Adam Waters became the 15th four-time gold medal winner in PIAA history on Saturday after a 4-1 decision in the 189-pound final. The Ohio State commit was 166-7 in his career. (Photo by Joe Evans\/JoeEvansPictures.com)<\/p>\n