BETHLEHEM - The present — and the future — of area girls wrestling shared the mat this weekend.

Veterans chasing history, newcomers making breakthroughs and underclassmen announcing their arrival all highlighted the District 11 Girls Wrestling Championships, led by Panther Valley senior Brenda Banks.

Banks didn’t just win the 235-pound title — she powered through it.

The undefeated senior needed less than four minutes of total mat time to capture gold, recording three straight falls to earn Outstanding Wrestler honors at the two-day tournament held Saturday and Sunday at Freedom High School.

After a bye into the quarterfinals, Banks pinned Pine Grove’s Audrey Graeff in 50 seconds. She followed with a semifinal fall over Pleasant Valley’s Jocelynn Cervenka in 48 seconds before finishing her run by pinning Allen’s Karla Montes in 1:28 in the championship bout.

“I was really hoping that I could perform at my top, at my best, and I think that I definitely did execute that,” said Banks. “Winning OW was honestly completely out of my mind because there’s so many talented wrestlers here.”

The performance was familiar for the senior. Banks improved to 30-0 this season and 103-2 for her career, with 78 victories coming by fall, and now advances in pursuit of a fourth regional championship and fourth state title. Her first postseason titles came before girls wrestling was sanctioned by the PIAA, with the last three contested under the official championship format.

“It’s starting to sink in more and more that I’ll kind of become a name in girls wrestling, and that makes me really proud,” Banks said. “I used to just say I wanted to win states because that was everyone’s goal. Now actually doing it and continuing to do it means a lot.”

While her matches were quick, preparation still played a major role.

“When I go into a match with somebody that I’m not familiar with, I always watch film to make sure I know what to do,” she said. “My technical improvement comes from my national season and camps in Fargo — there’s so many coaches and so much talent to learn from.”

Her dominant showing led a strong area performance that will continue at regionals.

Northern Lehigh sophomore Anna Trelease delivered one of the tournament’s biggest jumps, reaching the finals at 142 pounds after placing sixth a year ago. Trelease pinned East Stroudsburg North’s Mariana Ortega (0:19), East Stroudsburg South’s Isabella Wickerberg (0:32) and Parkland’s Laura Volpe (3:24) to reach the championship match before Pine Grove’s Geanna Lemke claimed the title with a fall in 1:39.

The surge has been dramatic — Trelease is now 18-1 after going 4-3 last season.

“Just technique-wise, knowing what I’m doing and actually going out there feeling like I understand what I’m doing,” Trelease said. “I kind of lost to myself, if anything — but I’ll be back better.”

“I’ve watched my matches a bunch of times to fix what I messed up,” she added. “Knowing I get another opportunity motivates me.”

Panther Valley senior Alisa Williams also reached the finals at 170 pounds after finishing third at districts last season. Following a bye, Williams pinned Tamaqua’s Zania Braewell in 34 seconds and earned decisions over Parkland’s Emily Siglin (5-0) and Stroudsburg’s Jasmine Chapman (4-2) to secure her championship berth. Bryce Snyder of Palisades earned the title with an 11-0 major decision.

Williams enters regionals at 29-5 after a steady climb through the program, going 14-13 as a sophomore and 33-10 last season when she qualified for states.

“To me, she’s the best of the best,” Williams said of her finals opponent. “I enjoy wrestling people better than me just to see where I’m at.”

“My first year I didn’t even make districts,” she added. “Now no matter who the person is, I go out and give it my all. Every year you fix little mistakes and get better.”

Lehighton sophomores Kennedy Quinn and Kailey Evans each battled back through the consolation bracket to earn fourth-place medals.

Quinn opened with a 1:07 fall over Freedom’s Heaven Binstead at 136 pounds, then responded to a quarterfinal loss with three straight wins — a 7-0 decision against Stroudsburg’s Elsia Trotter, a 17-1 (4:00) technical fall over Southern Lehigh’s Ella Gerczak and an 11-3 major decision against Liberty’s Kierha Castillo — to reach the third-place bout, where she battled East Stroudsburg South’s Jadeyn Learn – her quarterfinal opponent – cutting 5-1 and 8-3 deficits to 8-6 before falling 12-6.

Evans rebounded from a loss in her opening match at 190 pounds to win four consecutive bouts — pins over Dieruff’s Iyarah McDavid (1:36), Liberty’s Ellie Rumbalski (2:32) and Freedom’s Charlotte Sampson (3:14), along with an 11-0 major decision against Allen’s Kayla Smith — before finishing fourth as Catasauqua’s Anaiz Espinal secured the fall in 1:19.

The finishes marked major progress for Lehighton’s young wrestlers on a squad that finished 9-1 this season. Quinn improved from 12-12 and out of the district placements last season to 28-9 this winter, while Evans jumped from 6-16 a year ago to 18-11 and a podium finish.

“Our kids did everything we asked,” said Lehighton coach George Ebbert. “They’re tough kids. They wrestled hard for that.”

“The experience they got here is huge,” he added. “I can never be disappointed in them as long as they try their best.”

Only the top three wrestlers in each weight class advanced to regionals.

Regionals will be held Feb. 22 at Quakertown High School. The PIAA Girls Wrestling Championships are scheduled for March 5-7 at Giant Center in Hershey.