By Alex Frazier
Highlighting…Zac Haynes
There’s nothing like competing consistently at your optimum weight to bring the best out of a wrestler.
Council Rock North’s Zac Haynes made the supreme sacrifice this year by bumping up from 119 to as high as 130 to help his team win the National Conference, qualify for states in district duals and take the Section One title.
With all the bumping around, he still has an impressive 32-9 record.
“He’s been wrestling well,” said coach Tom Vivacqua. “We bumped him around like crazy all year for the team, and now he’s settling in to wrestling 119 again. He ran into some tough kids and had some tough losses.”“It’s been real stressful,” said Haynes. “I did it because the team needed me to do it, and it helped my teammates get to the state tournament.”
Five of his nine losses came at either 125 or 130. But since he’s been down at 119 he has a seven-match win streak going. And two of those wins came against Upper Moreland’s Tim Santry, who placed seventh at states last year at 112.
Haynes also went to states at 119 last year but missed the medal round by a single point when Central Dauphin’s Patrick Wieger took him down with 17 seconds left to win 4-3.
The first time Haynes met Santry came in the Section One championship. Santry caught him in a five-point move in the first period, but Haynes fought off his back and rallied to defeat Santry in an 8-7 overtime rideout.
“My biggest fear is getting five-pointed,” said Haynes.
He still vividly recalls the time when he was a sophomore that Council Rock South’s Brian Hercus pinned him in front of his home crowd.
“Ever since then I’ve been afraid of five-point moves,” he said. “My coaches have helped me overcome that.”
The next time Haynes and Hercus met, Hercus beat him 7-3, but the next three times they met, Haynes won.
“Since seventh grade I have a thing where if I get killed by a kid, I have to beat him before I graduate or he leaves,” said Haynes. “Once I beat him, they rarely beat me again.”
Haynes said that wrestling bigger guys this year had one advantage—it helped him fight off his back against Santry.
“I was able to stay in my back bridge so he couldn’t pin me” he said. “I looked over at my corner, I looked at my parents in the stands and I knew I wasn’t going to sleep any better if I had taken second, so I had to work hard for the next four minutes.”
Haynes was understandably anxious about wrestling Santry again in last week’s District South finals.
“I’ve never been so nervous for a match in my life,” he said. “I was telling my coaches in the corner how much I didn’t want to wrestle him, but I guess the nervousness played into my advantage.”
Haynes went on the attack getting the first takedown and a tilt for a 5-0 lead. Santry tried a big move that resulted in another five points, so Haynes was in good shape, ahead 10-0 en route to a 15-3 major decision and his second district title to go along with two sectional championships.
“We knew going in he had to go after Santry both times,” said Vivacqua. “Last week our game plan was to get the first takedown and press Santry a little bit early.”
Although Haynes claims he likes wrestling on his feet best, Vivacqua says he is a good all-around wrestler. “He’s solid in all three positions. He has good defense on his feet, and he’s been around long enough and he has the experience to have a good postseason.”
Haynes started wrestling when he was five but admitted he didn’t get good until his junior year.
“I was always second place, third place, maybe not even placing,” he said. “And then I kind of worked real hard over the summer before going into 11th grade and ended up getting better.”
This weekend at the Southeast Regional, Haynes is in the top bracket and Santry is in the bottom, so they won’t meet again until the finals, if they both make it. But both have some new competition that could have a say in that.
Norristown’s Dave Irwin and Unionville’s Joe Bonaduce are in Haynes’ bracket, while Santry will have to deal with Boyertown’s Matt Malfaro, Central Bucks West’s Steve Ferraro and LaSalle freshman Matt Cimato, who enters the tournament with an 18-match win streak.
Should Haynes meet Malfaro in the finals, he will have an advantage. Malfaro pinned him last year, but both times they met this season, Haynes was victorious.
“You get to regionals there are no easy weights,” said Vivacqua. “You better be ready every match.”
Haynes will have some additional incentive too.
“My goal is to be the first regional champ from Council Rock North,” he said. “We’ve never had one before.”
Next year, Haynes will wrestle at Delaware Valley College and major in criminology. He was recruited to wrestle 125.
“I stuck with Del Val to stay local, stay near my family and then if I do well, I may transfer out,” he said.
DQ doubled – If you happened to notice the fifth place bracket for the District North 285-pound weight class, there was no result.
Evidently Central Bucks West’s Matt McMurdo and Central Bucks East’s Joe Burke decided to have a little post-season fun, since neither cared who placed fifth.
After the first takedown, they switched and re-switched each other until, when the whistle blew at the end of the first one-minute period, the score was 18-18.
When the two exchanged switches again to start the second, the ref went to the scorer’s table and disqualified both of them with 1:06 left in the second period.
Lone survivor – Alex Vuotto’s season ended last year one match shy of the regional tournament, losing to Norristown’s Stephen Parker in the consolation semifinals.
He and brother Nick were the only two Upper Merion wrestlers to make it to districts this year, and Nick fell one match short of making it to regionals, but Alex will be heading to Oxford, albeit alone, by virtue of finishing third at 152.
“I just wanted to keep improving this year,” he said. “I’m glad I got the third at the end. I would have liked to be in the finals, but I’ve had trouble with consolation finals matches in the past so I was just glad to get this one.”
Quakertown OW Nick Lubenetski pinned Vuotto in the semifinals, but Vuotto fought back edging Upper Dublin’s Paul Choi and then taking out North Penn’s Randy Haun for the bronze.
“When my coaches told me how good I looked in my first match (a pin of Pennridge’s Brad Herrmann), it gave me a lot of confidence,” said Vuotto. “But then I tensed up in the Quakertown match. My coaches told me I had two more matches to get to regionals, and they told me I had to finish up the day and put it behind me.”
When he faced off against Choi in the consi finals, it was the fourth meeting between the two this year. Vuotto had won the previous three, all but one by close margins.
“He knows me so well,” said Vuotto. “I was still a little hesitant from the Quakertown match, but once I got past that, I went all out.”
Friends – Being an individual sport, wrestling creates friendships unlike team sports.
Souderton 189-pounder Joe Stolfi and Central Bucks West’s Ted Conrad had never wrestled each other at the start of the season; now they’re becoming good friends, as well as fierce competitors.
“The first time we wrestled at West, we started talking and we had a tournament at Boiling Springs and our teams sat next to each other,” said Stolfi. “We were just hanging out and having fun. He’s a good kid. He’s a good wrestler. I like that.”
Stolfi lost to Conrad in the opening dual meet of the year in a very close bout, 10-9, but at the Boiling Springs Tournament, Conrad cruised to a 19-8 major.
For the second week in a row they squared off in the championship match.
Last week Stolfi earned his first win over Conrad, and he did it in a big way dominating the Bucks senior, 19-8.
It appears as though Stolfi may now have his number, because for a second week in a row he won by a major decision, this time 10-2.
“I’ve actually been watching a lot of film,” said Stolfi. “I was watching all his movements and all the little things. I had confidence. I just knew he wanted to come out and win today, so I had to step up my game. He won this thing twice and he wanted to go for it a third time. I knew he would work hard, so I wanted to go out there and do my best and see what happens.”
The two may meet once again at regionals for the rubber match, but win, lose or draw, off the mat the two will remain friends, thanks to wrestling.
Spartans advance two – Springfield hosted the District One AA Tournament and advanced two wrestlers to this week’s regionals at Wilson West Lawn.
Steve Carpenter won the 160-pound crown, by majoring New Hope-Solebury’s Tom Villareale, 17-6.
“He wrestled very, very well,” said coach Corey McCaslin. “He was the top seed and it was a rightful seeding.”
Pat Feehan will also represent the Spartans, as he took home a bronze medal with a 6-1 decision over Harriton’s David Horev in the consolation finals. The match was a huge turn-around since Horan had pinned him in the district duals.
Three other Spartans just missed out on the trip. Zach MacGregor (112), Mike Honeywell (140) and Dylan Evans (285) finished fourth, but only three advance.
“Some of the seedings adversely affected a couple our guys,” said McCaslin, “but they wrestled well and we had a couple of guys step up and do a little more than expected.”
A case in point was MacGregor, who was taken down with 30 seconds left and lost by a point in the semifinals, and couldn’t get his momentum back.
“Sometimes it’s hard to come back from a loss like that,” said McCaslin. “I think he was one where the seeding didn’t benefit him, but you have to beat them all.”
Carpenter and Feehan hope to be among the five wrestlers in each weight class to advance to states.
But it is a tall order since they will be facing the best from District Three and District 11.
“We know it’s always a buzz saw walking into that,” said McCaslin.
Unblemished – Three wrestlers entered last week’s district tournaments with unblemished records and came out of them with their undefeated streaks intact.
Plymouth Whitemarsh sophomore John Staudenmayer ran his to 37-0 with an 8-3 win over Central Bucks East 160-pounder Devon Passman. William Tennent’s Zac Bush pinned Interboro’s Wayne Armstrong in the 135-pound finals to run his untainted mark to 33-0, and Abington’s David Osei cruised through the 285-pound weight class, blanking Glen Mills’ Mike Gaskin 6-0 in the championship to raise his mark to 37-0 heading into regionals.
You’d think the pressure would build each week, as the competition gets harder. For Staudenmayer, at least, he tries not to think about it.
“I like to think about the match that’s ahead of me and not what I’ve done,” he said. “It takes a lot of pressure off of you, if you just think about what you have to do. I try to stay humble about it and not let it get to my head. That’s when you let your guard down the most. I don’t want to do that at all.”
All three of them face stiff challenges this weekend at Oxford. Staudenmayer will have Council Rock South’s Ed Shupe, who dominated the South tournament. Bush will have to get by Central Bucks East’s Jon Brodzik, whom he beat 5-4 at the Wetzel Classic, as well as Kennett’s Kyle Bove, who is also undefeated at 35-0; and Osei will have a worthy opponent in Upper Perkiomen’s Jared Bennett. Bennett and Osei haven’t met yet this year, but Bennett does hold a 3-2 advantage, going back to 2006. In last year’s regional finals, Bennett won 2-0.
“The season gets fun because you get to test your ability,” said Staudenmayer after winning the 160-pound District North title. “I wrestled a lot of tough kids today. You try to measure up to what you think you can do.”
Staudenmayer said he would take a loss any day as long as he qualified for states.
Not shut out – For a while it looked like Council Rock South would come away from this season without a major team win. The Hawks lost the National Conference title to archrival North, didn’t qualify for states in the District Duals, and lost to North once again in the Section One Tournament by a slim half point.
But last week the Golden Hawks soared over their archrival, crowning six district champs and winning the title over North by 11 points.
“Winning the District One South title for the third year in a row was exactly what these kids expected to do,” said coach Brad Silimperi. “They suffered a lot of tough close losses this year in both dual meets and at sectionals, so this was simply vindication for them because they truly believe that they are the best team in District One.”
Silimperi prepares his team for the postseason, so it’s no wonder that at this time of the year the Hawks begin to peak.
“It’s a true testament to the kids for remaining steadfast to their goals and never wavering from the big picture,” he said. “We call it being mentally tough.”
Silimperi and his six regional qualifiers are looking forward to this weekend’s regional tournament.
“I really feel they are ready and peaking at the right time; however, each week they will need to step up their game as the competition continues to get tougher,” he said. “If all six guys place in the top four, I believe we will be right up there with the rest of the great teams in District One."
If Silimperi’s enthusiasm is any measure, don’t count out the Hawks.
“God, I love this time of year,” he said. “I can't wait until the emotional roller coaster this weekend where we will have the high of highs and the low of lows. Here's to a great weekend of wrestling.”
Oxford? – I applaud the PIAA’s choice of Oxford High School as the site for this year’s Southeast Wrestling Tournament.
Located in bucolic farmland, Oxford is a quaint Chester County historical town about as far south in Pennsylvania as you can go before entering either Maryland or Lancaster County.
It’s just a short hop, skip and a jump from Quakertown and Newtown. According to MapQuest, you can make the 80.69-mile trip from Quakertown in an hour and 36 minutes and although the mileage isn’t quite as far (78.51) from Newtown, it will take you an additional two minutes - if you don’t get lost.
Families may consider making it a weekend excursion. The Chesapeake Bay is only 12 miles away.
The rich history of Oxford dates back to 1774 when a dude named John Hayes built a two-story log cabin at a crossroads. He later sold it and it became Hoods Tavern and eventually the Oxford Hotel, which was a popular stopping off spot midway between Philadelphia and Baltimore.
I’m sure all you wrestlers will be impressed with the history and want to explore the area. Getting your picture taken under the towering, 200-year old Penn oak tree in the town square will be a keepsake you will always cherish.
But more pertinent, perhaps, is that there is a big mall, two cell towers, four food and beverage stores and 13 restaurants.
The commerce of Oxford will certainly appreciate the economic boost it is about to receive when 224 wrestlers, their coaches, and families descend on the town.
Parents who don’t want to commute 320 miles in two days will opt to stay over Friday night. Restaurants, motels and other stores will be overflowing.
If the tournament stays there for a few years, it may also jump-start the construction market. New motels will be needed; people might even move there so they won’t have to commute so far.
When you think about it, it really is a nicer place to go than Norristown.
And it has the added bonus of teaching the kids how to deal with adversity. With 8 a.m. weigh-ins Saturday morning, wrestlers from Quakertown, for example, would have to leave no later than 6:30, which means they would have to arise before the crack of dawn, and they might be wrestling for a chance to go to states 12 hours later. That just makes them all the tougher.
It looks like the PIAA has picked a winner.
Regionals – Here’s the schedule for the Southeast Region Tournament:
Friday, Feb. 27
First session
Weigh-ins-3:30 p.m.
Wrestling begins-5 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 28
Second session
Weigh-ins-8 a.m.
Wrestling begins-9:30 a.m.
Third session
Hall of Fame Induction ceremony and Coach of the Year-5:30 p.m.
Parade of Champions-5:45 p.m.
Championship and consolation finals-6 p.m.
Top Guns
103-James Bak, Hary S Truman
112-Matt Harkins, Hatboro-Horsham
119-Zac Haynes, Council Rock North
125-Matt Rappo, Council Rock South
130-Matt Martoccio, Council Rock South
135- Zac Bush, William Tennent
140-Eric Koch, Quakertown
145-Colin McConnell, Pennridge
152- Jim Vollrath, Council Rock South
160-Ed Shupe, Council Rock South
171-Bobby Lavelle, Council Rock South
189-Jamie Callender, Council Rock North
215-John Kaschak, Council Rock North
285-David Osei, Abington
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