By Alex Frazier
The four days between March 5-8 were intense for the Rappo family, to say the least.
Parents Rick and Margaret drove to Hershey on Thursday, March 5 to watch fourth son Matt, a sophomore at Council Rock South, make his debut in the PIAA State Wrestling Championships.
“We were going to stay with him as long as he was in the tournament,” said the father
Unfortunately, Matt was eliminated Friday evening after losing his second match. The next day Rick took off to the University of Pennsylvania to see his oldest son Rick wrestle in the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Championships, while Margaret drove five hours to Virginia Tech to watch No. 2 son Mike compete in the Atlantic Coast Conference Championships.
“It was kind of a busy weekend,” said Rick Rappo.
Mother and father had to compare notes via cell phone.
“That’s what they’re good for,” said the father.
Rick placed third for the Quakers, defeating William Simpson of Army 14-5 in the consolation finals.
“I would have liked to have gone to the finals,” he said.
The reason he didn’t was Lehigh’s Seth Ciasulli, who beat him for the second time in as many weeks, in the semifinals.
Ciasulli took him down in the first period, but Rick pulled to within one on a riding time point. He cut Ciasulli in the third but couldn’t get the takedown and lost 3-1.
“We had some good matches,” said Rick.
While Rick was wrestling in the tournament, younger brother Mark, a freshman 125-pounder at Penn, helped the team in other ways, such as filming.
He saw a bit of action this year, placing sixth at the Keystone Classic and third at the East Stroudsburg Open. He was also 5-0 in varsity matches.
He was somewhat prepared for college after wrestling in the FILA Junior Worlds last summer in Turkey, where he went 1-1. His coach then was Penn’s assistant, who has since taken over as the head coach.
Mark has found that wrestling in college is a lot harder than high school.
“I’ve been lifting a lot with the team,” he said. “When you get to college you lift a lot differently. I’ve gotten bigger with the Penn program. Everyone in college is so much stronger. I think I’ve adjusted to that pretty well. You don’t see a college wrestler that’s not a state champ or state placewinner. You’ve got to be ready to go every match. If you have a bad match, chances are you’re not going to do well.”
For the most part, he was behind junior teammate Rollie Peterkin, who ended up finishing second in the EIWAs, and is ranked ninth in the country.
Ironically, Rick wrestled Peterkin at the Dapper Dan Tournament his senior year. Peterkin wrestled for Blair and beat him 4-0.
“He was one of the top kids in high school, too,” said Rick.
If Peterkin moves up a weight next year, Mark will likely start at 125, but if he doesn’t, Mark is expecting to take a semester off, since athletes at Penn can’t redshirt as long as they are enrolled in school, unless there is a medical exemption.
Rick proved a huge help to Mark in his first year in college, and not just in the wrestling room.
“He helped me school-wise, what classes and what professors to take,” he said.
While Rick and Mark were hanging out at the Palestra, Mike, a redshirt sophomore at the University of North Carolina, advanced to the finals at Virginia Tech, before losing to Maryland’s defending champion Steve Bell, 11-7.
Heading into the ACC tournament, Mike was focusing on Virginia’s Matt Bonson, whom he ended up meeting in the semifinals.
“I had a picture of where I’d be in the bracket,” said Mike. “I knew I was probably going to have Bonson in the semis and that would be a real big match.”
He pounded Bonson 13-3 to earn his trip to nationals as well as another date with Bell, whom he had lost to by a close 6-5 in the dual meet.
“At that point I knew I made it so I kind of did some stuff I wouldn’t normally do,” he said. “There was a lot less pressure even though it was the finals.”
Mike is majoring in sport administration.
•••
The Rappos come by wrestling naturally. Rick senior wrestled for Vic Stanley in the heyday of Rock wrestling back in the late 70s.
“It comes from both of us,” said Rick. “They have that never-die-attitude from their mother.”
And the Rock connection goes even farther. The young Rappos went to wrestling camps at North Carolina with the high school team because another former Rock wrestler and coach C.D. Mock, a 1977 state champ, coaches there.
He was able to convince at least one of them to attend.
“That was one of the top reasons I even made the trip down,” said Mike. “I liked the environment and I really liked coach Mock.”
A senior at Penn, this is Rick’s last year of wrestling.
“It’s been fun,” he said. “To live with the guys you wrestle with is a lot different than high school. You form a closer bond and friendships.”
“I’m going to miss Rick,” said his father. “He’s been wrestling really, really good of late. He’s always fun to watch because he scores a lot of points.”
Rick is majoring in biology and bio-medical science.
The Rappo clan, grandparents included, made one more wrestling trip this year—to St. Louis on March 19 to watch the NCAAs. Mike received an automatic bid as the runner-up in the ACC, and Rick was given an at-large bid from the EIWA.
“It’s a little nerve racking,” said Mike. “It makes me think how nerve-racking it was to be at states, so you can kind of cope with it. Hopefully I’ll make it on to the podium. We’ll see how it goes. It’s going to be a tough bracket.”
This will be Rick’s second trip to nationals as he qualified last year as a 141-pound runner-up.
The last time the two brothers wrestled together at a tournament was at the PIAA State Tournament in 2005.
Both brothers made the finals. Mike won the first of two titles as a junior, while Rick, a senior, missed his second as he finished runner-up.
“I’d like to wrestle together with him at nationals,” said Mike. “We did well together when we were wrestling at states.”
•••
Neither Rick nor Mike advanced at Nationals. In his second trip to Nationals, Rick lost his first match to No. 5 Marcus Hoehn of Missouri in an overtime tiebreaker and then was eliminated by Cory Fish of Boise State in his first wrestleback, 7-0.
Mike didn’t fare any better in his debut. He lost a tough 5-4 decision to Cal Poly’s Filip Novachkov, 5-4, in the opener and then fell to Missouri’s Todd Schavrien, 9-3, to end his season.
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