MOMENTS THAT MADE HIGH SCHOOL WRESTLING
With the conclusion of the New Jersey state tournament Sunday, March 13, at the Boardwalk Convention Center in Atlantic City, the curtain came down on another great high school wrestling tournament season.
And that means it’s time to start cleaning out a very thick notebook.
First, it’s safe to say that the three states whose tournaments wound up the final weekend of competition —Michigan, New Jersey and Pennsylvania — treated us to the best for last.
I’ve written plenty over the years about the number of upsets that take place in the Illinois state wrestling tournament. I don’t know what it is about the Assembly Hall that turns season-long superstars into mere mortals for a day or two. Neither does anybody else I’ve talked to who knows far more about wrestling than I do.
And while many things happened in Illinois that were unexpected, what happened out East — especially in Pennsylvania — came straight out of the Twilight Zone.
Here are the top 5 reasons even someone as hard-headed as yours truly might think twice before handicapping the next Pennsylvania state tournament:
1. Connellsville High sneaking past the rest of the big boys for the Class 3A team title
Year in and year out, the Falcons pull out the unexpected at the state tournament. As good as they’ve been over the years, however, Connellsville had never doubled; winning the dual-team and individual titles in the same season. Now they have.
Getting titles from Maryland-recruit Steve Bell (125) and junior Ashtin Primus (135), the Falcons, only third entering the finals, erased a nine-point deficit against Easton High and caught Newton Council Rock South High, sharing the title with 68 points each. Just 13 points separated the top eight teams.
Senior Zach Snyder added a fourth-place finish for Connellsville.
2. The 125-pound train wreck
Key to Connellsville’s title surge was the flurry of upsets at 125 that began in the very first round. That’s when the top two stars — nationally-ranked Seth Ciasulli of Easton and Steve Mytych of Northampton — were both knocked out of the running. Ciasulli, the two-time defending state champion who is committed to Lehigh, was upset, 4-3, to State College High junior Kyle Fluke. Mytych, who beat Ciasulli, 4-3, to win the Northeast Region title the previous week, was dumped, 8-6, in overtime by Exeter High’s Tony DeSanto.
Like the champion he’s been in the past, Ciasulli came back strong, winning five straight in the consolation bracket to take third place. Mytych, meanwhile, was reversed to his back in the overtime tiebreaker by Red Lion Area’s Eric Albright and failed to place.
Fluke and DeSanto, meanwhile, both lost in the semifinals, Fluke falling to Eastern Michigan-signee Sean Clair of Pittsburgh Plum High, 6-5, and DeSanto falling 4-2 to Bell. Bell’s 7-5 overtime victory over Clair started Connellsville’s title march.
3. Oh, brother…
Speaking of Council Rock South, Rappo was expected to win the title. But which Rappo? That’s why they wrestle the matches. South’s title hopes appeared to be dashed at 112 when top-ranked senior Rick Rappo, nationally ranked and 42-0 entering the match, was turned back, 3-2, by Pennsburg Upper Perkiomen High’s Chris Sheetz. Rappo had beaten Sheetz in the Southeast Region final the previous week.
Just as his brother had been the heavy favorite at 112, junior Mike Rappo, was a decided underdog in the 119-pound final against defending champion Brad Pataky of Clearfield High.
Just as it had for Sheetz, the underdog role suited Mike Rappo just fine as he pounded the unbeaten Penn State-recruit 9-3.
Unbeaten sophomore Austin Carter added the 160-pound title, allowing South to salvage a share of the title with Connellsville.
4. Everything that could go wrong…
…did go wrong, it seemed, for Easton High which attempted to repeat as 3A champion.
Easton entered the tourney with four nationally-ranked title threats: brothers Jordan (103) and Josh Oliver (130), two-time defending champ Ciasulli (125) and Alex Krom (135).
Jordan Oliver was the only one of the four to survive the quarterfinals. He lost 5-0 to the nation’s top 103-pounder, Clearfield’s Matt Kyler, in the final. Two, Ciasulli and Josh Oliver, lost in the first round. All four managed to place in the top four, but it’s safe to say the Red Rover nation — as well as the rest of the wrestling community — expected more.
Actually, they didn’t need much more. Their 67 points were one fewer than Connellsville and Council Rock South and they held a seven-point lead entering the finals. Unfortunately for the Rovers, a point here and a point there added up to third place.
One Easton wrestler who did turn in a big win was junior 145-pounder Braylin Williams. His 3-2 consolation win shut another nationally-ranked wrestler, Council Rock South’s Chris Chambers, out of the medals.
5. Three monster showdowns
Never in the history of the Pennsylvania state tournament had a pair of two-time defending state champions met. That’s exactly what happened at 152 as two of the nation’s best met. Pittsburgh-recruit Joey Ecklof became Northampton’s first three-time state champion as he beat West Virginia-recruit Donnie Jones of Greensburg-Salem High, 10-3.
Two other great upper-weight battles took place in Class AA and, like the Ecklof-Jones match, all three wound up more one-sided than expected. At 171, A.J. Graves of Jeannette High beat Logan Downes of New Kensington Valley High, 8-1. And at 215, Nate Sipes of Curwensville High beat Kyle Davis of Archbald Valley View High, 12-3.
Grey survives New Jersey upset parade
While upsets were removing the likes of John Trumbetti (112) of Montvale St. Joseph Regional High, Will Livingston (125) of Newton Kittatinny High, Joe Bubenheimer (140) of Woodbridge High and Dennis Landolt (HWT) of Delran Holy Cross High, Mike Grey of Morristown Delbarton High was having no such trouble.
Grey, 114-1 over thre
e seasons, romped to the 119-pound title, his third. Next year, he’ll attempt to become the first wrestler in the 69-year history of the sport in New Jersey to win four state titles.Based on his performance last weekend, whatever pressure there is shouldn’t affect Grey much. He opened the state tournament with a technical fall, added a pair of first-period pins and ended it with a 9-4 victory over another returning state champion, Jimmy Conroy of South Plainfield High.
What will the pressure be like? Grey isn’t sure. Maybe he’s been successful in pushing it aside to this point. But that time is about to come to an end, and Grey knows it.
“I’ve always said I’ll deal with the pressure when that time comes,” Grey told the Newark Star-Ledger after winning his third title. “I guess that time has arrived.”
Grey could do himself a tremendous favor by matching the accomplishments of his neighbor to the north, New York ace Troy Nickerson. Not that Nickerson was feeling any pressure this year, but one of the reasons he didn’t had to be his dominating performance in the Junior Nationals from start to finish last summer. Nickerson, by the way, became the first five-time New York champion with a first-period pin and three technical falls.
A similar performance for Grey, who’s come up a little short at Fargo the past couple of years, could make him even more of a lock at Atlantic City a year from now.
Heartbreak award
Life isn’t always fair. Sometimes, wrestling can be even less so.
The end-of-the-season experiences of Rob Tate, the 125-pounder for Dallas (N.C.) East Gaston High, are a case in point.
The former Class 3A state champion had a chance to clinch the dual-team state title for East Gaston, which led Hillsborough Orange High 28-26 heading into the final match. But Orange’s Adam Clayton, who was bumped up a weight from 119 for the match, handed Tate a 12-3 loss and snatched a 30-28 state-title triumph for Orange.
(Clayton was no slouch, by the way. He went on to win the individual state title at 119.)
Fast forward two weeks to the individual state tournament. East Gaston led Jamestown Lucy C. Ragsdale High by eight points heading into the finals and stretched the lead to 13 with Jared Grigg’s technical-fall win in the 112-pound final.
Up stepped Tate at 125 with the chance not only to win a second state title, but to clinch a repeat team crown for East Gaston with a victory over Ragsdale’s Kyle Kanaga. But Kanaga escaped with an 8-6 victory, opening the door for Ragsdale.
Sure enough, back-to-back victories by J.P. Polchinski (152) and Jesse Creed (160) gave Ragsdale the title by the slimmest of margins, 97-96.5.
Good thing wrestling builds character … and provides us all a lesson in handling adversity.
Speaking of challenges
For a wrestler who finished his career with a 232-0 record, Davison (Mich.) High’s Brent Metcalf sure had plenty of challenges.
First, there was his No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown with fellow four-time state champion Dustin Schlatter of Massillon (Ohio) Perry High in the Medina Tournament of Champions over the holidays. Metcalf rode out Schlatter in the overtime tie-breaker after the two had finished four periods tied at 3-3.
Then, there was the challenge issued by Clarkston state champion Braden L’Amoreaux, who went to 145 pounds for a shot at Metcalf.
Their first match took place in the region tournament final, and it was no contest. Metcalf dominated the match, winning, 21-9.
Three falls later, Metcalf was in the state final against…you guessed it, L’Amoreaux. Don’t such rematches get closer the second time around?
Not in this case. Metcalf’s 19-7 victory sealed his fourth state title — and his legacy.
(Rob Sherrill is one of the top high school wrestling analysts in the country and a long-time columnist of W.I.N. He also publishes the “American High School Wrestling Yearbook”. To order a copy, e-mail him at www.centermatpress.com.)
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