By Alex Frazier
Meet…Rich Jasinski
Pennridge coach Cliff Gehret would agree that Rick Jasinski has the “killer instinct.”
But it wasn’t always that way.
As Jasinski said, “I try to pump myself up as much as possible. In previous years, I’ve had problems with my confidence. I’d think to myself, ‘Can I really beat this guy?’”
The Pennridge junior is hoping to take his wrestling to a higher level this year. As a sophomore, he qualified for states, an accomplishment in itself, but went 0-2 in the cavernous Giant Center.
“I just got in a little over my head when I got out there,” he said. “I didn’t wrestle like I should have. I let all the fans and that new environment get to my head. I went out there and froze up.”
He’s now hoping his off-season training will pay off.
Over the summer he attended Jack Cuvo’s Wrestling Club, which has helped him in several ways. He has gotten better on his feet and polished his technique.
But perhaps more importantly, he has gained confidence in himself.
“They helped a lot with my confidence,” said Jasinski, “just believing in yourself, telling yourself you are the best and can win. That’s helped a lot. I’ve been telling myself that, and that helps a lot because I go out there thinking I’m going to win the match, and I wrestle a lot better.”
Along with confidence, his strength has improved thanks to dedicated weight training.
“It’s something I hadn’t done in previous years,” said Jasinski. “That’s helped a lot.”
With new assistant coach and previous Pennridge state champ Dan Goetter in the room, Jasinski is learning to be tougher on top.
“I definitely notice an improvement from last year,” said Jasinski. “I can hold a lot of people down.”
Last fall he wrestled in the pre-season fall states. He lost to Lorenzo Thomas of Central Catholic (District 7) 3-2 and fell to LaSalle’s Joey Mazzi in a tiebreaker.
This year he has been wrestling mostly at 140, but on occasion Gehret has bumped him to 145 to get better competition.
“He has really good technique and he learns a lot from the coaches,” said Gehret. “Besides that he has a passion for it. He’s a natural wrestler in the sense that he’s emotionally capable of pushing himself really hard in practice so in a match he’ll win. Pure instinct.”
A case in point was against Blue Mountain at the Zephyr Duals. He was matched with defending state champion Josh Kindig. Jasinski hung with him for the first period, but Kindig muscled him to his back early in the second period.
“He’s just another level above everyone else,” said Jasinski. “He’s fast, strong. It was mostly his strength I couldn’t keep up with. He took me down really quickly. I wasn’t expecting that.”
Jasinski, however, did come back from that and beat a good wrestler in Northwestern Lehigh’s Bobby Clymer 5-2 to help the Rams to a 39-30 win.
His second loss this year came at the Solanco Mule Classic against the host’s 140-pounder Joe Welk, who beat him 3-1 in sudden victory in the semifinals. Jasinski then rallied to take third place.
“We want him to wrestle the best kids every match, so that he becomes better than the best,” said Gehret. “Now kids are getting smart and scared so they’re changing their lineup around so they don’t have to wrestle him.”
Wednesday night Gehret matched Jasinski with one of Quakertown’s best in Briar Malischewski, who handed Jasinski just his third loss of the season, 4-1.
At one point Jasinski considered dropping to 135 for the post-season, but after he got down as far as 138, he decided it wouldn’t be advantageous.
“I feel strong,” he said, “but after getting down to 138, I felt a little weak and dehydrated, so I decided I’d stay at 140. I’d rather keep my strength up and feel better than to cut those few pounds and feel weak.”
That will put him up two weight classes from last year’s post-season.
Although he still has another year of high school wrestling to look forward to, Jasinski has started a preliminary search of colleges. He is interested in pursuing engineering or pharmaceuticals as a major.
Rutgers and Lehigh are definite possibilities.
A 4.3 GPA student, academics certainly won’t hold him back.
But there’s a lot of wrestling to do before that.
Obviously, getting back to Hershey is a primary goal, but even more than that he wants to do something there this year.
“Now that I know how it feels I plan to do a lot better this year,” he said.
Last year he lost to Council Rock South’s Matt Martoccio by a point at regionals to place fourth. Martoccio then went on to finish eighth at states.
“I know I should be up there,” said Jasinski. “That’s why I’ve worked so hard this season.”
“I definitely see him going back to states,” said Gehret. “There’s no doubt in my mind that he has the ability and the potential to place in the top eight. It’s not outside his range of ability.”
Best weight class in SE Pa. — What’s the toughest weight class in the SE Region this year?
189. No doubt.
There are four state qualifiers and two state medalists and a bunch of others who could also challenge for a spot on the medals stand at Hershey this year.
The cream of the crop are Council Rock North’s Jamie Callender and Springfield Delco’s Andre Petroski, who placed second and third, respectively, last year.
While the two did not meet up at states, they did do battle in the regional finals, with Callender getting a late takedown to win 3-2.
This year Callender is 21-1 and Petroski 16-1. Both their losses came to the same wrestler—Blair Academy’s Mike Evans. Evans beat Callender 5-2 and majored Petroski.
Below these two, there will be batch of District One wrestlers battling for the last two spots at states.
Oxford’s Nick Ruggear qualified for states last year, finishing third at 189. This year he is 21-2, having lost to Petroski and Billy George from Long Branch. At states he went 1-2.
Council Rock South’s Bobby Lavelle was the fourth qualifier last year, finishing second at regionals in the 171-weight class. Like Ruggear, he went 1-2. This year he is 19-6, mostly at 189, but he has wrestled six matches at 215.
Also in the mix is Upper Moreland’s James Nicholson, who missed out on states last year by one match, having lost to Souderton’s Joe Stolfi 3-1 in the consi semifinals. This year he is 16-2. He lost his first match of the year to Petroski 3-2 and his second came against Manheim Twp.’s Austin Schultz.
Plymouth Whitemarsh’s Sam Morison is also having a good year at 12-3. He lost to Nicholson 4-2 on a tiebreaker but had an impressive win over Central Dauphin’s Zachary Koller.
If you think there’s a tougher weight class, I’d like to hear about it. E-mail me at SuburbanOneWports@comcast.net and state your case. Be sure to give us your name, so I can acknowledge you in my next notebook.
District Duals – Next Thursday the District One Dual Meet Tournament starts. Seeding for the tournament takes place Sunday.
Hopefully, all the teams that qualify will be able to participate.
Last weekend, four teams bowed out of the Council Rock North Elite Duals because of an incidence of herpes. A similar incident occurred last year in District One South with Great Valley bowing out.
Most of the schools seem to be from the National Conference. Council Rock South postponed its meet with Abington Wednesday night, Bensalem and Harry S Truman and William Tennent and Pennsbury also postponed. Council Rock North is slated to face William Tennent Thursday. It remains to be seen if they wrestle.
C.R. South coach Brad Silimperi also postponed Saturday’s tournament at the Cement Town Duals. He expects his team to get back on the mat Monday.
“It’s very unfortunate, but at the same time it’s part of our sport,” said Silimperi. “Of course we can do a better job with the hygiene, but you’re never going to prevent it 100 percent. Right now we’re making sure we take care of things on our end.”
He is optimistic that district duals won’t be affected.
“It’s looking positive for district duals unless there’s a huge outbreak of something,” he said. “The teams that are shutting down this week are doing the right thing. Nobody likes to do it. We’re all in this together. If we don’t take care of this now, district duals could be in jeopardy.”
Three Class AAA teams and just one Class AA team will advance to the state tournament. The first round of states is Feb. 9 and the next rounds are Feb. 12-13 at the Giant Center.
District One Dual Meet Tournament Schedule
Class AAA
Thursday, Jan. 28
First and second rounds-Sites to be determined
Friday, Feb. 12 at Pottstown
6 p.m.
Quarterfinals on four mats
8 p.m.
Wrestlebacks and semifinals on four mats
Saturday, Feb. 13
1 p.m.
Consolation semifinals
4 p.m.
Finals and consolation finals
Class AA
Saturday, Feb. 13
1 p.m.
Semifinals
4 p.m.
Finals
Around the league – Matches in the National Conference were postponed last night due to a herpes infection.
In the Continental Conference, Peter Jenne returned to the Souderton lineup to help the Indians overwhelm Central Bucks South 48-18. Jenne’s 11-2 major decision at 160 was one of a string of six consecutive wins that ended the match.
In the American Conference, there was an interesting matchup in the Upper Moreland-Upper Merion match. Although the Golden Bears coasted to a 62-12 victory, the Upper Moreland’s Tim Santry had his hands full with the Vikings’ Ryan Ginsburg. Santry bumped up to 135 to edge Ginsburg 6-5 in sudden victory.
Springfield used six pins and five forfeits to hammer Cheltenham 66-18. Falls for the Spartans came from Kyle Jackson (160), Drew Dearden (171), Richie Kassabian (103), Sam Barkovsky (130), Adrian Wint (145) and Michael Honeywell (152).
• Over the weekend Norristown placed second at the Mountaintop Invitational.
Central Bucks West went 2-3 at the NHSCA Invitational. In the Bucks’ match against Pocono Mountain West, Chris McGinley (119) pinned Sean Phuah in the final bout to give West a 38-34 victory. McGinley won all five of his bouts with three falls, a major and a decision.
• Quakertown and Central Bucks West gave Upper Merion and Cheltenham a good challenge for fastest match of the year. In the Panthers’ 51-27 win, there were 11 pins, one forfeit and two decisions.
TOP Five SOL
1. Council Rock South
2. Council Rock North
3. Quakertown
4. Norristown
5. Upper Moreland
Top Guns
103—Billy Rappo, Council Rock South
112—Josh DiSanto, Pennsbury
119—Matt Harkins, Hatboro-Horsham
125—Scott Wolfinger, Quakertown
130—Tim Santry, Upper Moreland
135—Luke Wisniewski, Plymouth Whitemarsh
140— Josh Dziewa, Council Rock South
145—Matt Martoccio, Council Rock South
152— Eric Koch, Quakertown
160— Andre Watkins, Wissahickon
171—John Staudenmayer, Plymouth Whitemarsh
189— Jamie Callender, Council Rock North
215—Joe Stolfi, Souderton
285—Marcus Robbins, Norristown
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