By Alex Frazier
Wrestling season opened with a flourish Friday and Saturday. Most local teams headed off to either individual or dual-meet tournaments.
Only two days into the season, there have already been some big matchups.
At the Falcon Duals in Lower Bucks, Harry S Truman won its second straight match against Pennsbury, a team the Tigers had beaten only once before in 16 years until last season.
The match was considered non-league, as the two teams will face off again at Truman later in the season.
Truman 140-pounder Ray Nuttal made the difference. He was losing 2-0 in the second period when he hit a Petterson, which he converted into a fall.
Nuttal wrestled as a sophomore, going 6-6, but quit wrestling as a junior to focus on his main sport, baseball.
This year he decided to come back out.
“He gets rewarded by coming up with a big pin,” said coach Steve Given. “That could have been a nine point swing.”
The outcome eventually hinged on Shane Marchesani’s match at 160. He defeated Pennsbury’s George Peel 5-3 in overtime to secure the 32-30 win. Marchesani, along with Steve Evens (112) finished the day at 4-1.
Sean Edmondson (130) was the lone Truman wrestler to escape undefeated at 5-0. He had three pins, a tech fall and a forfeit.
The Falcons were penalized three team points and Truman one. Without those points, the match would have been tied, but Truman would have still won on the basis of more pins (4-2).
Pennsbury was wrestling without heavyweight Josh Mitchell, who failed to make certification. Mitchell is ranked eighth in the state in the pre-season.
As it was, Truman’s heavyweights showed a lot of improvement since last year when they went 5-15. This year they were 9-11.
“That’s a big improvement,” said Given. “They’re all football players who just started wrestling last year.”
Truman finished the tournament at 3-2, losing to Cedar Cliff, ranked fourth in the state, and Norristown.
“Our goal was to beat State College (42-36) and Pennsbury,” said Given. “Maybe we should have set our goals higher to beat Norristown.”
The Norristown match came after the big win over Pennsbury.
“We came out flat,” said Given.
In a battle of area powers, Council Rock North edged Boyertown 34-33 thanks to Allan Slezak’s 8-7 decision of the Bears’ Peter Jones in the final bout at 130.
The Indians lost to Boyertown three times last year.
Council Rock South traveled to Ohio to take part in the prestigious Ironman Tournament, which is considered by many to be the best in the country. The Golden Hawks finished 27th.
Matt Martoccio placed seventh at 140 and Bobby Lavelle was seventh at 189.
Billy Rappo and Matt Rappo advanced to the quarterfinals, but were the eliminated.
At the Southeast Classic at Wissahickon, a pair of brothers from Plymouth Whitemarsh claimed top honors. Wrestling in his very first varsity matches, Justin Staudenmayer won the 119-pound title. And he did it with an incredible rally after trailing Methacton’s Justin Andrews in the semifinals.
Trailing Andrews 10-1 heading into the third period, Staudenmayer chose top at coach Nate Wachter’s urging. Wachter was hoping that Staudenmayer would have success with his tilt, and he did as he racked up three sets of back points to tie the match and then stacked Andrews for the fall.
“He was being the aggressor, but Andrews was a little bigger than him,” said Wachter. “It was amazing, especially to see that from a freshman.”
Maybe a loss to St. Augustine Prep in a scrimmage early in December was the wakeup call Staudenmayer needed. His opponent from St. Augustine finished fifth in Delaware. Staudenmayer led 5-1 at one point but ended up losing 7-6.
“That was a little bit of an eye-opener,” said Wachter.
Older brother John Staudenmayer won the 171-pound title and was named the tournament’s outstanding wrestler.
“That was something good for him to give him a little confidence,” said Wachter.
Both Staudenmayer brothers are wrestling up a weight now and are facing bigger, stronger opponents. They will go down when they get the weight allowance in January.
As a team the Colonials finished third.
“I was happy but not satisfied,” said Wachter. “Sam Morrison should have won his finals match; John O’Malley should have went for third and fourth. And I had a couple of other guys that didn’t place and should have, so in my opinion we should have been second behind Wilson.”
One of the best individual matches came at the Quakertown Duals where the Panthers’ Scott Wolfinger met C.B. West’s Bubba McGinley. Wolfinger won the duel with a third period reversal, 6-4. It certainly won’t be the last time those two knock heads.
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