By Alex Frazier
Congratulations to all the wrestlers who survived to compete another week. Some of you have been there before and recognize it’s only a first step. For others of you it is a giant step forward to the ultimate goal.Good luck this week as the competition steps up a notch.
I will be on vacation next week, so you will have to wait until Monday, March 7 for wraps on the Southeastern Regional Tournament.
Section One
Last year Council Rock South’s diminutive heavyweight Tommy Trampe (he goes at about 210) didn’t make it out of sections.
Harry S Truman’s Quinton Bryant eliminated him 3-1.
But this year was a different story. Not only did Trampe advance to districts, but he also became the first Council Rock South heavyweight to win a sectional title.
“That’s pretty interesting,” he said. “Usually heavyweight (at C.R. South) would stink. It’s kind of nice to make a name for the heavyweights because we always had good lightweights. It’s nice to solidify the team.”
“We are very proud of him for that,” said coach Brad Silimperi.
What made it even more impressive was that Trampe won all three matches by a total of five points.After missing a whole week of practice due to sickness, Trampe confronted William Tennent’s Andrew VanBuskirk, whom he had pinned during the regular season, in the first round.
It took a takedown in overtime for Trampe to advance.
“I guess I took him too lightly,” he said. “I really didn’t have my wind back yet. I wasn’t too sure after that. I didn’t know what was going to happen in the next match.”
Trampe said that being lighter than most of the heavyweights he faces is an advantage because he is still strong in the third period while many others are gassing.
“I usually have a little bit more left than they do,” he said. “That’s what really helped out.”
In the semifinals he faced Bryant once again. Earlier in the season he had lost a second match to the Truman heavyweight in a 5-2 tiebreaker.
This time the match went to a tiebreaker once again, but it was Trampe who came up with the reversal in the second 30-second overtime period to pull out a 3-1 victory.
“That was how he beat me in the last match,” said Trampe. “That was nice.”
In the finals, he met Neshaminy’s Tyler Stabilito, who had beaten Trampe 5-3 in the second match of the season.
It was another nailbiter, as Trampe took Stabilito down on the edge of the circle with 30 seconds left for a 3-2 win.
“I was pretty happy,” he said. “It was a lot better than last year.”
Trampe said that his confidence has grown since wrestling in the state dual-meet tournament.
“I had a lot of one-point matches with some of the top kids in the state,” he said. “Last year as a sophomore and being small I had the mindset that once I went out there with someone they would already have me beat because I would see them two feet from me and they were 70 pounds heavier. Now wrestling those good kids at Hershey lets me know I can tangle with basically almost anybody.”
“Tom has wrestled the best competition possible this year so he is really ready for the post season,” said Silimperi. “He's in great shape and understands how to wrestle like a heavyweight even though he's a bit small. His success on the football field has really been a positive factor for him on the mats as well.”
Trampe’s hoping his performance at sections will bode well this weekend in districts.
“Winning sectionals gives me a lot of confidence because I have a good draw this week,” he said. “I’m just hoping to keep moving on.”
• Abington’s Bryan Osei is another wrestler who didn’t get out of sections last year as a sophomore.
He cited a couple of reasons. A football player like his brother David (Bryan plays defensive end), he devoted the off-season to football and neglected wrestling. “I didn’t have a shot and I wasn’t really good on offense,” he said.
In addition, he came into the season last year feeling pressure to perform like his brother had. David was a runner-up at states as a senior.
“Last year I felt a lot of pressure,” he said. “That was one of the reasons I didn’t do so good. When I went on the mat, I would be thinking I had to do better than him, so I was really nervous. This year I went out telling myself just to have fun, and I’ve been having fun and wrestling a lot better.”
This year he worked on wrestling in the off-season going to SEPA practices and wrestling in MAWAs.
“I went to preseason wrestling practices,” he said. “The year before I didn’t really do any wrestling.”
The results are evident. Last Saturday he took home the gold medal in the 215-pound weight class.
In his quarterfinal match, he pinned Cheltenham’s Emmanuel Rouse in 1:09. In the semis, he decisioned Council Rock North’s Tyler Callender, 5-2. He was expecting to wrestle William Tennent’s Brenden Shirley in the finals, but Shirley lost to Council Rock South’s Tom Dingui in the semifinals.
“Our 189 almost beat him (Dingui) so I thought I had a pretty good chance,” said Osei.
With one second left in the second period, Osei caught Dingui in a lateral drop for a pin.
“It felt really good,” he said. “I worked really hard to get out of sectionals this year.”
After going 15-19 last year and not advancing to districts Osei is now 27-3, a sectional champ, and who knows how far he has yet to go.
“I’m pretty confident I’ll be able to get out of districts,” he said. “We’ve been working hard in practice this week. I’ll be happy if I can go to regionals. Regionals was my goal coming into this year. If I can get out, that would be great, but if I can’t I won’t be too disappointed. I’m going to try to get to states next year definitely.”
Section Two
Central Bucks East’s Francesco Fabozzi was one of seven freshmen to make it to the next level.
Fabozzi last his finals match 8-1 to Upper Perk’s Wolfgang McStravick.
“The last match was a learning experience,” he said. “I have some things to work on this week.”
Fabozzi said the transition from middle school to high school was challenging. Two injuries during the season didn’t make things any easier either.
“It was tough coming back from those two injuries, but I feel like I’m in full swing now, and I adjusted pretty well,” he said.
He’s now 25-9.
“I put in the work, so I guess I did pretty well,” he said.
• Four wrestlers won their first sectional title—Pennridge’s Scott Parker (103) and Rich Jasinski (160), Souderton’s Kolton Veit (112) and Central Bucks West’s Chris Jastrzebski (189).
The West junior came down with a stomach virus halfway through last season and had to call it a year prematurely, so this year’s title was even more significant.
• Jastrzebski was also one of four wrestlers that pinned all the way through. He had a pair of falls after a first-round bye.
Quakertown’s Briar Malischewski had four first-period pins at 140, as did Souderton’s Joe Stolfi at 215. The fourth was Cody Ambrose of Upper Perkiomen.
Section Three
It may not have been the “Thrilla in Manila,” but one of the most exciting bouts in the section came at 135, where a pair of freshmen battled it out.
Norristown’s Mike Springer had been looking forward to tussling with Wissahickon’s Pat Fennell, especially since the Times Herald had picked Fennell to win the duel.
Springer had missed a couple of practices the week before due to illness and injury.
“Some of my teammates didn’t think I would be ready,” he said. “They thought I would have a tougher time. I had to prove them wrong. I just wanted atonement.”
The matchup came in the semifinals and true to its billing was a close bout.
After a scoreless first period, Springer rode Fennell out in the second and escaped early in the third period to eke out a 1-0 win.
“That was the match I wanted to win more than anything,” he said. “I didn’t talk to many people that day. I just went and wrestled real hard and came out on top. “
The victory keeps Springer undefeated against his friend off the mat at 6-0.
During the off-season, the two work out a lot together.
“We’re pretty close personally,” said Springer. “When we go to tournaments (during the summer), he’s usually my roommate. We do better as roommates than other people.”
Round one is over, but there will most likely be many more in the next three years, perhaps beginning this week at districts, though the two are in opposite brackets.
• Norristown’s Tyree Gardner started his post-season by recording his 100th win. He put that in the book by pinning Perkiomen Valley’s Derek Buckley in 1:42.“I was really excited,” he said. “Coming off my freshman season with just six wins I was kind of scared I wasn’t going to get it. That was a great way to start the tournament off.”
It made it a little easier this year when Norristown qualified for the state duals because it gave him some extra matches.
“It was on my mind all season,” said Gardner. “Once I got in range of it, I just started counting down.”
Gardner went on to pin Billy Gioioso of Upper Dublin in the semis to set up a match against Hatboro-Horsham’s Matt Harkins, a fourth place finisher at states last year. He had wrestled Harkins earlier at the Escape from the Rock Tournament, losing an 11-0 major decision.
Though Harkins pinned him in the third period, Gardner was still pleased with his performance. It was the first time he had ever made it to the sectional finals.
“That’s another honor,” he said. “I’m actually happy with my performance. I went after him. I gave him a run for his money, so I’m not disappointed.”
This week at districts, Gardner is shooting to win his first two matches to set up a semifinal showdown against Pennsbury’s undefeated Josh DiSanto.
“I just want to make it out, but making it to the semifinals and wrestling DiSanto is what I really want to do,” he said.
He has wrestled DiSanto before at a practice but never in a regulation match.
“I do pretty good with him at practices, but I want to see him in a real match now,” he said. “I’m pretty close with all the top guys. This year is a big difference from last year. I’m more rounded as a wrestler. I’m just looking to make it far this season. It’s my last year too.”
Lights out – Both the Section One and Section Five tournaments experienced power failures.
At Neshaminy, the tournament continued on emergency power and two generators that were used to power the scoreboards. The finals started 20 minutes late. Power eventually was restored for the 140-pound finals.
At Ridley, the lights failed during the semifinals and the tournament was postponed until Monday.
District Schedule – The top four qualifiers from Sections 1, 2 and 3 will compete Friday and Saturday in the District One North Tournament at Council Rock North. Sections 4, 5 and 6 will square off in the District One South Tournament at Spring-Ford.
For both districts, weigh-ins will be held at 4 p.m. on Friday and wrestling will start at 5:30 p.m. with preliminaries and quarterfinals to be completed.
Weigh-ins Saturday start at 8:30 a.m. and wrestling will begin at 9:30 a.m. and will include the first round of consolations, followed by a break, and then the semifinals, the second round of consolations and the fifth place matches.
The Parade of Champions will begin at 5:45 p.m. and the Championship and Consolation finals will begin at 6 p.m.
Regional qualifiers – After consulting my wrestling genie, here is a list of the regional qualifiers.
103 – Billy Rappo (Council Rock South), Zach Fuentes (Norristown), Scott Parker (Pennridge), Tommy Stokes (Bensalem), Jason Bing (Pennsbury)
112 – Trey Balasco (Council Rock South), Ron D’Annunzio (Methacton), Anthony DiEmidio (Pennsbury), Mike Pritchard (Bensalem), Kolton Veit (Souderton)
119 – Matt Harkins (Hatboro-Horsham), Josh DiSanto (Pennsbury), John Dutrow (Council Rock North), Tyree Gardner (Norristown), Mack Moore (Council Rock South)
125– Sean Edmondson (Harry S Truman), Shane Longsreth (Council. Rock North), Justin Staudenmayer (Plymouth Whitemarsh), Wolfgang McStravick (Upper Perkiomen), Jeff Lieb (Pennsbury), Shane Hughes (Bensalem)
130 – Scott Wolfinger (Quakertown), Anthony Prisco (Bensalem), Nick DiMuzio (Upper Dublin), Adam Slezak (Council Rock North), Nick Giangiullio (Perkiomen Valley)
135 – Matt Rappo (Council Rock South), Mike Mathis (Central Bucks South), Mike Springer (Norristown), Pat Fennell (Wissahickon), Nick Lippincott (Bensalem)
140 – Matt Martoccio (Council Rock South), Luke Wisniewski (Plymouth Whitemarsh), Briar Mailischewski (Quakertown), Anthony Dutrow (Council Rock North), Pat Carr (Methacton)
145 – Brandon Parker (Norristown), Zach Robinson (Pottsgrove), Connor Moore (Council Rock South), Seth Ehlo (Central Bucks West), Will Dill (Upper Moreland), Gavin Milligan (Perkiomen Valley)
152 – Brett Harner (Norristown), Brendan Hastings (Neshaminy), Tom Demetrio (Pottsgrove), Dominic Rigous (Central Bucks South), Eric Gray (Bensalem)
160 – Nick Russell (Neshaminy), Rich Jasinski (Pennridge), Shawn Stefanelli (William Tennent), Zeke Zimmer (Lower Merion), Alex Price (North Penn),
171 – John Michael Staudenmayer (Plymouth Whitemarsh), Shane Gilmore (Council Rock South), Conlan Cornman (Pennsbury), Cody Ambrose (Upper Perkiomen), Brendon Poff (Council Rock North)
189 – John Bolich (Upper Moreland), Chris Jastrzebski (Central Bucks West), Tim Riley (Council Rock South), Haddon Corbett (Harriton), Orvin Liburd (Cheltenham)
215 – Joe Stolfi (Souderton), Brandan Clark (Methacton), Bryan Osei (Abington), Brandan Shirley (William Tennent), Tyler Callender (Council Rock North)
285 – Ken Cenci (Phoenixville), Gavin Queenan (Norristown), Quinton Bryant (Harry S Truman), Tommy Trampe (Council Rock South), Tyler Stabilito (Neshaminy)
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