By Alex Frazier
Every wrestler’s dream to stand on the podium in the Giant Center at Hershey.
The higher the better.
Two Suburban One League wrestlers stood at the very top Saturday night to complete their high school careers as state champions.
After two disappointing visits to Hershey, Council Rock South’s Josh Dziewa finally put it all together to claim the 135-pound championship.
And, after finishing second last year, Council Rock North’s Jamie Callender took the final step up to take the 189-pound championship.
In all, 12 SOL wrestlers earned podium spots.Both Dziewa and Callender had dominating performances in winning their championships.
For Dziewa, it was a year of redemption after winning just one match in two state appearances as a freshman and sophomore. Last year he was ineligible because he transferred to Council Rock South from Pennsbury.
Dziewa rolled over Pittsburgh Central Catholic’s Eric Nutter, 6-0, in his first match. In the quarterfinals, he decked Joseph Rizzolini of Easton in 5:09 and in the semis edged Nick Catalano of Canon McMillan, 1-0.
He took just one minute and 28 seconds to dispatch Shawn Greevy of Cumberland Valley to claim his gold medal.
Callender also had a pair of pins on his way to the top.
His first opponent Christopher Pintado of Liberty fell in 3:27. Next up was Phil Sprenkle of Dallastown. Four takedowns led to a 10-4 decision and a semifinal bout with Trinity’s Kyle McWreath, who made it into the third period before Callender pinned him.
“The kids are tough,” said Callender, “but I had to wrestle hard. I couldn’t get out of position.”
Callender’s championship bout was his toughest, but he knew his opponent well. He had wrestled Springfield’s Andre Petroski five previous times, winning all but two of them. Every match was a grueling battle.
Most recently they met last week in the regional finals in which Callender won 11-6 in overtime.True to form, the match went into overtime again, this time with Callender getting the first takedown to win 7-5.
“I kind of had a feeling it would be a D-1 final,” he said. “It was good to reach my goal. It was exciting.”
Next year Callender will wrestle 184 at Drexel.
Taking a place at states is simple: You have to win on Friday, which guarantees you at least an eighth-place finish.
That was critical for three SOL wrestlers.
At 103, Council Rock South’s Billy Rappo was shut out 10-0 in his first-round match on Thursday. He came back and pinned Nick Bogacki of DuBois in 2:41 to make it to the next day.
Friday’s first match was a big one for Rappo, since he was wrestling West Chester Rustin’s Corey McQuiston, who had beaten him in the regional finals by a resounding 13-0.
Clearly he had a huge mountain to surmount.
“I tried to put that match behind me and wrestle a new match,” said Rappo. “I thought I could beat him because he was coming off a hard loss. That was the best time to beat him.”
But Rappo had done his homework. He knew that the taller McQuiston had a good cradle and had caught him in it several times in the first match.
This time he guarded against it, especially when McQuiston tried to go out front.
“I tried not to let him get in that position too much,” said Rappo.
In the first period, McQuiston took him down for a 2-0 lead. Rappo chose neutral in the second to avoid going to the mat. He took McQuiston down twice for a 4-3 lead into the third.
“I broke him the second time I took him down,” said Rappo.
McQuiston chose top in the last period, but Rappo reversed him and hung on for a 6-3.
That got him to the medal round, but unfortunately he lost his next two bouts to finish eighth.
“I probably wasn’t predicted to get a medal, but I did anyway,” said Rappo. “That was exciting.”
William Tennent’s Kevin Flack was another wrestler that faced a well-known opponent in a do-or-die match at 112.
Flack lost his first match to eventual champion Jimmy Guliban of Derry. Like Rappo, he rallied to win his first consolation bout 11-1 over Punxsutawney’s Seth Spack.
Meanwhile, Pennsbury’s Josh DiSanto won his preliminary bout by tech fall over Tim Wheeling of General McLane, but lost his quarterfinal match against Paul Bewak of Hempfield, 15-10. It was DiSanto’s first high school loss after racking up 32 straight wins.
With cross bracketing into the consolations, DiSanto ended up paired against Flack.
That shouldn’t have been cause for concern, since DiSanto basically owned Flack with three wins, including a pair of falls.
But the Flack that stepped out on the mat against him in Hershey was not the same as previously.
From the opening whistle, Flack took the action to DiSanto. Although the first period ended scoreless, Flack nearly had two takedowns.
In the second period he took DiSanto down three times and earned a near fall off the last one to go up 8-3. He went on to win the match 16-10 but not after a scary moment at the end when DiSanto headlocked him and had him on his back before time ran out.
After that big win, he had no more left in him.
Unfortunately he was denied a state medal for finishing eighth because he was called for flagrant misconduct in his final match. He will also have to sit out his first match next year.
A tough lesson to learn.
Quakertown’s Scott Wolfinger also met an old friend in Council Rock South’s Matt Rappo, who had beaten him two weeks straight in the district (7-5) and regional (10-6) finals.
This time they met in the third round of consolations. Both were guaranteed medals; it was just a matter of which ones. The winner of the match would wrestle for third through fifth and the loser would be going for seventh.
Wolfinger pulled out a 7-2 decision but then lost his next two bouts to finish sixth.
In the consi semifinals, Wolfinger met Jordan Glykas of Northampton, who had beaten him in his preliminary bout 4-2 in overtime. This time Glykas pinned him in 1:51. He the lost to Cameron Throckmorton of South Western 11-3.
Rappo pinned Dylan Mogan of Bethel Park in 2:41 to take seventh.
Plymouth Whitemarsh’s John Staudenmayer finished third—the hard way.
He lost his first match 4-1 to Central Mountain’s Tyler Buckwalter, which meant he had to battle all the way back through the consolations.
“We were all very disappointed,” said PW coach Nate Wachter. “He came out flat and wasn’t ready. He definitely could have beaten that kid. He was a little cautious. It was a tough loss, but at the same time it woke him up. He wrestled perfectly from then on.”
He reeled off four straight wins, tech falling Vincent Colletta of Delaware Valley, majoring Luke Etter of Big Spring, 9-1, decisioning Nick Bonaccorsi of Bethel Park 3-1 in overtime and Parkland’s Wade Rivera 5-2, to face Colton Spade of Lewistown for the bronze medal.
In a tight match in which he was cautioned twice, Staudenmayer opted to cut Spade in the third period so he wouldn’t give up a point if he were cautioned again, and won 3-2.
“He wrestled very smart,” said Wachter. “We feel he should have been in the finals against (Central Dauphin’s Marshall) Peppelman, but we were satisfied with third and college coaches really like looking at that. They like seeing a guy who loses his first match battle back and take third. Next year there’s only one place to go.”
Hatboro-Horsham’s Matt Harkins, Souderton’s Joe Stolfi and Norristown’s Marcus Robbins all placed fourth.
At 119, Harkins made it to the semifinals, beating Brandon Choate of Blue Mountain, 10-7. But then he lost to 34-0 and eventual champion Nico Megaludis of Franklin Regional, 13-5.
Dropping into the consolations, he edged Monsignor Bonner’s Nick Bongard 8-7 to set up a re-match with Choate. This time he lost 11-5 to take fourth.
Stolfi majored Brandon Fedorka of Hopewell 11-3 in his first bout and then lost a tough 6-5 decision to Whitehall’s Taray Carey, 6-5. Stolfi fell behind early 6-2 and came on strong in the third period, but time ran out on him.
In his first two consolation matches, he blanked Methacton’s Brandan Clark, 6-0, and previously undefeated Sean Sadosky of St. Mary’s, 6-3, to set up a rematch of the regional finals with Oxford’s Nick Ruggear, whom he had beaten 6-3.
Ruggear had his number this time in a 9-4 decision.
Like Staudenmayer, Robbins lost his first match to undefeated (36-0) and eventual champ Evan Craig of Abington Heights. Robbins was just of one of four wrestlers Craig pinned en route to the heavyweight title.
In the consolations, Robbins racked up two falls of his own along with a pair of decisions to make it to the consolation finals, where he lost to Bethel Park’s Adam Lezenga, who also came into the tournament undefeated (46-0), 6-2.
Other SOL place winners included: Central Bucks West’s Seth Ehlo eighth at 135, Council Rock’s Matt Martoccio sixth at 140 and Norristown’s Brett Harner eighth at 140.
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