By Alex Frazier
Battle of Unbeatens – The heavyweight division at the state tournament was unbelievably tough. Three of the four wrestlers that reached the semifinals were undefeated.
“It’s hard to go through the whole season undefeated,” said Abington coach Jeff Franko. “There’s a big target on you all year long.”
In the top half of the bracket, Abington’s David Osei was 44-0. His opponent Tyler Cowman of Wyoming Valley West was 29-3.
In the bottom half of the bracket, Sean Owen of Clearfield was the defending state champion with a 41-0 mark. He lost 3-2 to Abington Heights’ Evan Craig, who was 39-0.
In the finals, Osei lost 3-1 to Craig on a takedown on the edge of the mat in the last second of the first period.
“I had a whizzer in, but they said it was two, so I had to try to earn my points back,” said Osei.
This was Osei’s third trip to states. As a sophomore, he was 0-2 and last year went 1-2.
“He learned from his past two times up at states,” said Franko. “He was able to relax a little more and wrestle to his ability.”
Franko thought Osei showed his best stuff in the semifinals. It was certainly a nailbiter.
In the first overtime, Osei just barely avoided being taken down, when he spun free of Cowman. He then rode Cowman out for the 5-4 win.
“He had a granby the whole match, and he kept getting out on me,” said Osei. “It took me until the last overtime to time out his granby. Every time he started doing it, I tried to stop the roll and I kept on doing that, and once he rolled I cut his legs from underneath him and started holding him the rest of the time.”
Franko said that was a “defining match” for him
“He showed people it wasn’t just his size and brute athleticism,” said Franko. “Of all the matches he wrestled that really showed he’ll battle you to win.”
Next year, Osei will head to Rutgers on a football scholarship. The 6-4, 250-pounder is slated to play on the offensive line after a red-shirt year.
He plans on majoring in education with a focus on social studies.
Before that, however, he may make one last appearance on the mats. He hopes to compete in his first senior nationals this summer.
“I’m going to see how I feel, if my shoulders are healed up all right,” he said. “In between, I’ll work out a lot and get a lot of weight lifting in for school.”
Callender finishes strong – The post season has not been kind to Jamie Callender. The Council Rock North junior broke his wrist in the district semifinals as a freshman and last year he came down with mononucleosis after districts and in a weakened state had to settle for a fifth place at regionals, one place away from Hershey.
This year Callender was healthy. And it showed.
After cruising through the Section One Tournament, he hit a bump in the road in the district finals, losing to Springfield Delco’s Andre Petroski, 8-6. But he avenged that loss with a 3-2 win in the SE Region finals.
“I was very happy I got through with no injuries,” he said.
At states, he and Petroski were in opposite brackets. Callender cruised through his first-round match with a 15-2 major over Ringgold’s Todd Miller. In the quarterfinals, he racked up another major, defeating Shane Rosenberry of Elizabethtown, 13-3.
He had his closest match in the semis where he cruised past Central Mountain’s Jake Bachman, 8-1.
“I definitely had a nice draw in the bracket,” said Callender. “I just went out there and wrestled tough.”
In every one of his matches, he was able to score back points following the takedown.
“It was nice to get a little cushion and wrestle smart from there,” he said.
In the finals, he met a familiar foe in Central Dauphin’s Tony Dallago (45-2), who had pinned him when they met earlier in the season at the Cumberland Valley Duals.
“I went in feeling no pressure,” he said. “I was definitely the underdog. I went out and tried to have fun.”
Unfortunately, the second time ended in the same result.
Callender took a half shot and Dallago snapped him down and spun, and in the resulting scramble, he locked Callender in a double arm bar for the fall at 1:33.
“That was that,” he said. “It was frustrating. All together it was a good weekend. I would have liked it to end differently.”
One good thing, Callender won’t have to worry about him next year since he was a senior.
Callender will play his final year at linebacker for the Indians next fall.
He has already decided that he will pursue wrestling rather than football in college.
“I love playing football,” he said, “but I have concussion problems.”
He’s hoping to get his college decision out of the way early, but he will take time to weigh his options.
“I would enjoy knowing where I’m going next year sometime early, but it depends on my options,” he said.
Finishing second at states as a junior will certainly open lots of doors for him.
Meanwhile, he plans to continue wrestling this summer.
“I plan on putting a lot of focus on wrestling this summer and the spring,” he said. “Next year I definitely want to win the state championship.”
Rappo – Some people might have been surprised to see that Matt Rappo went 1-2 at states and even more surprised that he was pinned in both of his losses.
But oldest brother Rick said, “This year he’ll take it as a learning experience. I know when me and Mike were sophomores, we didn’t even qualify for the state tournament. We both lost in double overtime and then we came back our junior years and ended up winning. He still has time.”
District dismal – The last time District One was shut out of a state champion was in 1995. Of the 48 District One wrestlers that went to states, 23 were from the SOL. While D-1 collected 22 medals overall—none of them gold—eight of them were from the Suburban One League.
Both finalists were SOL wrestlers. While this year wasn’t a good one for our area, the future looks brighter. Seven sophomores and six juniors will return to try their luck again next year.
Apologies – Apologies to Council Rock South’s Jimmy Vollrath, whom I inadvertently omitted from the list of placewinners in Sunday’s state wrap.
Vollrath finished in eighth place, losing a close 5-4 bout to Conneaut Lake’s Matt Laird in the seventh-place match. Vollrath finished his senior year with an impressive record of 41-4.
Footnote – In two weeks in my final notebook, I will have the All-League candidates as well as capsules of the Wrestlers of the Year.
Final Top Guns
103-Mike Mathis, Central Bucks South
112-Chris McGinley, Central Bucks West
119-Zac Haynes, Council Rock North
125-Matt Rappo, Council Rock South
130-Matt Martoccio, Council Rock South
135-Jon Brodzik, Central Bucks East
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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