BETHLEHEM - Saturday night didn't end the way Trent Thomas had envisioned it would heading into the District 11 AAA wrestling tournament.

The Pleasant Valley senior was hoping to make his own history during the 220-pound finals against Freedom's Evan Callahan, but found himself on the wrong side of a 4-3 decision at Liberty's Memorial Gymnasium.While speed, quickness and cardio helped push Thomas (19-8), the top-seed in the weight class, to his first finals berth against Callahan, ultimately size won out in this battle of upper weights. Callahan outweighed Thomas by nearly 20 pounds and was six inches taller than his counterpart, parlaying his size for a first period ankle pick that caught Thomas off guard, which would ultimately become the deciding takedown in the bout."He caught me with that," said Thomas of the ankle pick. "I almost had him [Callahan] on his back in the first period. I know what he has now and I just got to be tough and work on getting out from bottom."Thomas trailed 4-2 heading into the third period when Callahan (24-3) showed another part of his repertoire that Thomas will need to adjust to at regionals - riding.Callahan's long legs and arms wrapped around Thomas like a boa constrictor for the better part of the final period, before he was able to eventually escape late in the period.By then it was too little, too late."I knew that he was shorter than me and that I was going to have good chances at low shots," said Callahan. "It was really all about taking what he was giving me."Bears' head coach Justin Micklos knew that Callahan's size could give Thomas problems, but also pointed to the 4-3 scoreline, noting that his wrestler isn't that far behind from potentially knocking him off at regionals."He was in it the whole time and just got unlucky with the ankle pick," Micklos said. "Callahan is a tall and lanky kid and every bit of 220, so going up a weight class wasn't going to be easy. We'll work on some things this week in the room and hopefully things can end up differently at regionals."The lessons from Saturday night will surely be used this weekend when Thomas, along with teammates Jason Jacobi (132) and Trevor Dorn (170), join him at the Northeast Regional tournament back at Memorial Gymnasium. It's fair to say that Thomas will be motivated for a bout at redemption this time around."I can look at it this way, I started wrestling my freshman year and now I made it to the finals my senior year," he said. "I just got to get back in the room this week and practice and take everything I learned and use it at regionals."Jacobi (28-6) and Dorn (31-4) both finished in fourth at their respective weights, as Jacobi lost an 11-2 decision to Parkland's Jacob Lizak in the consolation round, followed up by Dorn falling victim to Nazareth's Cade Wilson by fall in 3:34.With three wrestlers moving on, Micklos was pleased with the performance of his team after entering districts with just eight competitors."I always tell my guys, it's harder to place at districts than it is at regionals," Micklos said. "I think our guys will do well next week."