By Alex Frazier
Standing atop a podium was certainly nothing new for Council Rock South’s Billy Rappo and Plymouth Whitemarsh’s John Michael Staudenmayer.But the air was certainly rarer on the summit of the podium in the Giant Center Saturday night as Rappo and Staudenmayer ascended the steps to receive their first PIAA State gold medals.
Rappo won the 103-pound weight class, edging Parkland’s Ethan Lizak in a 3-2 overtime tiebreaker.
“I had never won states when I was growing up,” said Rappo, “so it was a great experience being on top of the podium.”
Staudenmayer crushed Spring Grove’s Neal Grudi 15-2 to win the 171-pound weight division.
“It really hasn’t hit me yet,” said Staudenmayer on Sunday. “It was amazing knowing you’re the top guy. I’m kind of glad the stress is over with.”
Rappo and Staudenmayer were among 11 Suburban One League wrestlers to claim state medals. Upper Moreland’s John Bolich (189) and Souderton’s Joe Stolfi (215) placed third; Norristown’s Zach Fuentes (103) and Brett Harner (152), Hatboro-Horsham’s Matt Harkins (119) and Council Rock South’s Matt Rappo (135) finished fourth; Council Rock South’s Shane Gilmore (171) and Norristown’s Gavin Queenan (285) came in seventh; and Neshaminy’s Nick Russell was eighth.
For Rappo, winning a state title relieved some pressure. Three of his older brothers had been state champs, so you can imagine the expectations for the youngest in the family.
“It was mostly me doing it for myself,” he said, “but it was good knowing that I joined the club with my brothers and all the other state champions.”
His next older brother Matt wasn’t quite as fortunate. He lost his quarterfinal bout to Chambersburg’s Garrett Hammond. He made it back to the consolation finals where he lost to Unionville’s Mason Popham, whom he had beaten in last week’s Southeast Regional final.
“He was bombed after the first match he lost,” said Billy Rappo, “but he bounced back, fighting for third.”
Billy Rappo’s first big test came in the quarterfinals where he faced Liberty’s Brett Marino, who had defeated him 4-1 in his second match of the year.
“I was pretty confident,” said Rappo. “The coaches just told me to do what I do and it would work out.”
Rappo made that look easy with a 15-8 victory.
He took Marino down four times and turned him twice.
“It was great to get that back,” he said.
He then blanked eventual third place winner Colt Shorts of Canon-McMillan, 5-0.
His finals opponent was also familiar. Rappo had majored Parkland freshman Ethan Lizak back on Jan. 22, but this time wouldn’t be so easy.
Lizak was having a super post-season, beating Marino in the Northeast Regional finals.
“I didn’t want to go in overconfident,” said Rappo. “The coaches said he had been on a run and not to take him lightly.”
Regulation ended in a 1-1 draw with each having escaped from the other.
No points were scored in the first overtime. Rappo had choice for the first 30-second period and chose down.
“I was constantly moving and he got high at one point so I bucked up and ended up reversing him,” he explained.
That reversal turned out to be the difference.
“I felt pretty confident in myself right there,” he said. “All I had to do was wrestle smart and I would win the match.”
Rappo did just that, riding Lizak for more than half of the second 30-second period before he cut him and “ran away from him.”
While Rappo had to pass two big tests, Staudenmayer had just one.
After dispatching Clearfield’s Derek Danver 8-3 in the first round, Staudenmayer had to take on Bethel Park’s Nick Bonaccorsi. He had wrestled Bonaccorsi twice before, beating him once in an ultimate tiebreaker and the other in overtime.
The third time wasn’t as close as Staudenmayer won a 5-3 decision.
“That match I felt pretty comfortable,” said Staudenmayer. “Everybody kept saying that whoever won that match was probably going to win the bracket. I definitely focused more on that one than any of them, but I still had the same mentality in every match”
The rest was a cakewalk.
In his four state bouts, Staudenmayer outscored his opponents 44-13. Staudenmayer is Plymouth Whitemarsh’s second state champ; the other was assistant coach Justin Giovinco.
• Bolich moved up from seventh place a year ago to place third. He caught a tough draw when he ran into 171-pound defending state champ Kenny Courts of Central Dauphin after a pair of first-period pins in his first two matches. He had lost to Courts in a pre-season tournament.
Bolich fell behind early as the quick Courts took him down with a dump and racked up two near fall points. Courts used the same move in the second period to build an 8-3 lead and then sat back and coasted in the third period. Bolich, meanwhile, couldn’t penetrate Courts’ defense and fell 8-5.
“I knew that was coming,” said Bolich. “I wasn’t planning on giving up the two back points in the beginning. I was OK with the idea that he might get the first takedown because he’s so quick and so good in the first period. My plan was to wrestle my best in the first period and then take advantage once he starts to slow down. He does not make it easy to score on him even when he’s tired.”
Falling into the wrestlebacks, Bolich maintained his focus, defeating Ryan Burnheimer of Westmont Hilltop 10-0 before decking Perry Hills of Pittsburgh Central Catholic in 2:47.
“It was good to come back and beat up the next two kids,” said Bolich. “I would have hated to go down like a lot of kids. Overall I’m happy with it. I wrestled well the entire tournament. It was good to pin people and I wrestled a good match against Courts.”
• Souderton’s Stolfi ran into some bad luck in his semifinal match against last year’s 215-pound runner up Zachary Nye of East Pennsburg. He led the undefeated (36-0) senior 4-1 before two controversial penalty points tied the bout at four.
The first came on a flagrant misconduct call, when the referee penalized him for too strong of a crossface.
“I didn’t know how that was a flagrant crossface,” said Stolfi. ”I’ve had crossfaces so much worse than that. Most refs give you a warning.”
The second came when Stolfi was working a power half and the ref penalized him for grabbing Nye’s headgear.
“I wasn’t even close to grabbing the headgear,” he said. “I had no idea why he stopped it.”
When the bout went into overtime, Nye was in on both of Stolfi’s ankles. Stolfi made the mistake of turning his back and trying to dive off the mat. Nye held the ankles long enough for the official to award the takedown before they went out of bounds.
But Stolfi didn’t blame the officiating for the loss.
“I still should have been able to wrestle better,” he said. “I didn’t wrestle a perfect match. I can’t blame it on anybody.”
In the end justice prevailed. When Nye lost his semifinal bout to Methacton’s Brandan Clark, it set up a rematch with Stolfi for third.
This time the match went into overtime where Stolfi scored a counter takedown with 15 seconds left to win 4-2.
“I wanted to prove I should have won that (first) match,” he said.
The win over Nye in the end helped mollify Stolfi’s huge disappointment at not making the championship, but not much.
“It was very disappointing,” he said. “The goal was gold and I didn’t get gold. Unfortunately for me, my season in my eyes was a failure, but at the same time I was able to avenge my loss. That made it a little bit better at the end, but that’s not what I was looking for.”
• Harkins was also shooting for his last chance at a gold medal and came up short.
He ran into eventual champ Corey Keener of Blue Mountain in the semifinals.
Keener scored all his points in the first period with a quick takedown and two back points. Harkins rode him out in the second and escaped in the third but couldn’t get a takedown.
“Once I was down, it was hard to get back up,” he said.
In the consolations, he defeated Big Spring’s Dereck Enders on a three-takedown effort, 7-3.
His bid for third fell short when South Central champ Tyson Dippery of Central Dauphin beat him 11-7.
“I lost a lot of my will to want to wrestle by then,” said Harkins. “It’s a long time from your consy semi match to your finals match. I wanted first and didn’t get that so I really didn’t want to wrestle it.”
Though he didn’t finish with gold, Harkins did become Hatboro-Horsham’s first two-time medalist, placing fourth the past two years. He finished his career at 153-23.
• When Harner woke up last Sunday, his knee was swollen. He could barely walk Sunday or Monday. By Wednesday he was able to go through some light drills.
His dream of gold dissipated in his first bout when he lost to DuBois’ Geno Morelli, 3-2.
“I just wasn’t ready to go,” said Harner. “That kid was strong and overpowered me.”
It was a long road back to the consy finals. He won his first three matches by a total of five points.
Against Central Mountain’s Tyler Buckwalter in the quarterfinals, he earned his 100th win, quite an accomplishment for a sophomore.
Buckwalter escaped in the third period to tie the match at three, but Harner scored a takedown with 18 seconds left in the first overtime to set up a re-match with Morelli in the semifinals.
“The main goal was to get a medal,” said Harner. “If it (the 100th) happened, it happened.”
The win also assured him a higher place than his eighth place finish a year ago.
In the consy finals, Harner held a slim 3-2 lead 11 seconds into the third period after Buckwalter escaped. But Harner set the tone on his feet, taking Morelli down twice for a 7-4 win.
“I knew he’d come out for my head so I went out more defensively,” said Harner.
In the match for third, he ran into Southwest Regional champ Lorenzo Thomas of Pittsburgh Central Catholic, who won 9-3.
“I haven’t actually wrestled many kids that were taller than me and longer than me,” he said. ”I’m used to wrestling kids that are short and stocky. It was a different experience.”
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