\u201cIn today’s world, it is not often that you can say that you witnessed history in the making,\u201d said Dr. Dean Donaher, principal of Bethlehem Catholic High School, to an auditorium full of students, staff, administration, and the friends and family of Keanu Dillard, one of the most decorated athletes in District XI history. <\/p>\n
The four-time PIAA AAA state champion wrestler received a surprise following an after-school Mass on March 12 \u2014 a congratulatory presentation just days after he won his fourth PIAA AAA state championship, a feat never before accomplished at Bethlehem Catholic and achieved by only a few wrestlers in District XI history. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn nearly 90 years of the PIAA wrestling, only a handful of athletes, 16 now to be exact, have ever stood atop that podium four years in a row,\u201d said Bethlehem Catholic Athletic Director Stephen Tomaszewski. \u201cHowever, Keanu\u2019s achievement is even more specific. Keanu has secured the illustrious \u2018triple-four.\u2019 <\/p>\n
\u201cBefore Keanu, no other wrestler in the history of the historic District XI wrestling championships has ever swept all three post-season tournaments for four consecutive years. Let that sink in again. Keanu has never lost a post-season match.\u201d <\/p>\n
His athletic accolades while at Bethlehem Catholic include: <\/p>\n
\u2022 Career record: 147-10. <\/p>\n
\u2022 Most pins in school history: 63. <\/p>\n
\u2022 East Penn Conference First Team: Four times. <\/p>\n
\u2022 District XI Champion: Four times. <\/p>\n
\u2022 Northeast AAA Regional Champion: Four times. <\/p>\n
\u2022 PIAA AAA State Champion: Four times. <\/p>\n
\u2022 2026 District XI, NE Region AAA and PIAA AAA State Most Outstanding Wrestler. <\/p>\n
\u2022 First wrestler in District XI history with a clean sweep of the post-season. <\/p>\n
\u2022 Nationally Ranked Wrestler, committed to Lehigh University, Bethlehem. <\/p>\n
\u2022 Ironman Tournament Place Winner: 2024 and 2025. <\/p>\n
\u2022 Beast of the East Champion: 2025. <\/p>\n
Dillard has also wrestled on the world stage, representing Team USA, earning a bronze medal at the 2024 U17 World Championships in the country of Georgia. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn addition to his wrestling accomplishments, Keanu also serves as the Student Body Vice President on Student Council, is ranked in the Top 10 of his class, and is a member of National Honor Society,\u201d said Regan Downey, Director of Communications and Marketing at Bethlehem Catholic. <\/p>\n
Recognizing Dillard\u2019s humility in the face of all these accomplishments, Tomaszewski said, \u201cBut if you asked Keanu about these accolades, he likely won\u2019t talk about the gold medals. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019ll probably talk about the early morning workouts \u2026 the weight cuts \u2026 the grind \u2026 the van rides \u2026 the brotherhood, and the Bethlehem Catholic wrestling program. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe’ll probably tell you that his favorite moment of the post-season wasn’t his own titles but watching his brother Reef stand on the podium with him. That\u2019s the type of character Keanu Dillard has.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI am extremely proud of how hard he\u2019s worked over the last four years,\u201d said Keanu\u2019s father, Gabe Dillard, after the presentation. \u201cAnd actually, what I’m most proud of is not necessarily the hard work, but the fact is that he can visualize goals, set action steps and then just check them off of his list like no one else I’ve ever met. <\/p>\n
\u201cEven myself as a grown adult, I struggle to visualize goals and accomplish them, and he just has done it since he’s been a baby. He sets goals and says, \u2018I’m going to do this.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n
Keanu Dillard accepted a spot on the wrestling mat and in the classrooms of the Integrated Business and Engineering College to study finance at Lehigh. He hopes to set his sights on the Olympics in future years. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIn today’s world, it is not often that you can say that you witnessed history in the making,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-167039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167039","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=167039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}