Mt. St. Joseph survives early scare from Archbishop Spalding while also taking down Archbishop Curley and St. Frances in home quad meet.
No. 3 Archbishop Spalding took on No. 7 St. Frances Academy in the opener of Wednesday evening’s quad meet at Mt. St. Joseph and put a 41-21 win in the books. No. 1 Mt. St. Joe throttled St. Frances in the second round of matches, 53-12. An outcome that made it seem like St. Joe would have a stress-free meeting with Spalding.
The Cavaliers had other plans, though. They came out firing on all cylinders in front of the St. Joe faithful and pulled off two upsets en route to winning five of the first seven matches and taking an 18-10 lead.
The score was as close as it was despite dominating down low because the Gaels put bonus points on the board in their two wins, while the Cavaliers only secured extra points in their first win at 106 when No. 3 Eli Chesla decked No. 19 Angelo Kibby in the first period, 1:26.
Freshman Quentin Bailey will be moving up the rankings from his No. 10 position as he added to the Cavalier’s good times with a 7-5 win over No. 3 Joseph Cooper at 113.
St. Joe’s No. 2 Jake Tamai fell behind early to unranked Roc Zang at 120, and it looked like Spalding coach Mike Laidley had his mojo working overtime. Tamai recovered from his flat start to register a fall shortly into the second frame, 2:35, to get the Gaels off the schneid.
No. 3 Bryan Santangelo (126) tried to keep that momentum rolling for St. Joe with an early takedown in his bout with No. 1 Sean Garretson, but the Cavalier recovered and went onto to put up five takedowns in the scorebook, four of those in the third period, to secure a 12-8 victory and increase the Spalding lead to six, 12-6.
No. 1 Vincent Paolucci produced a solid performance that snuffed out No. 9 Tyler Stephens’ upset hopes and built upon the Cavaliers’ lead with a 6-3 tally, pushing his squad out front, 15-4.
At 138, No. 1 Carter Nogle worked furiously to secure bonus points for his squad, tallying multiple takedowns but was not able to pick up the pin, settling for a 14-2 major decision of No. 2 Zane Leitzel. (we moved each wrestler up a spot in the 138lb rankings with South Carroll’s JoJo Gigliotti moving down in weight).
No. 19 Ryder Kolat was at Mt. St. Joe last year, so the rankings and what Gael’s coach Harry Barnabae saw in the room, suggested Kolat was the underdog in his showdown with No. 11 Jade Diggs. An early knock on the head produced a large gash on Kolat’s forehead that he was able to overcome and author an upset victory over Diggs, 6-5, to push his team’s lead to eight, 18-10.
“A couple of early matches went Spalding’s way, and I must admit I was surprised,” expressed Barnabae. “I have to give credit to their 113 pounder, Bailey, and 144 pounder, Kolat. They came prepared and ready to wrestle and did a very nice job.”
“Jake Tamai came up big with a fall at 120 pounds and that placed some breaks on their momentum swing. You expect ebbs and flows during dual meets such as this. So, I wasn't too concerned at that point knowing that our strength lies with our upper classmen. They are seasoned and it showed with Carter Nogle’s and Austin Lewis’ performance.”
No. 3 Cameron Cannaday swayed the flow in St. Joe’s favor with a grinding, 4-1, decision of No. 4 Charlie Gessford. Cannaday’s win would be the first of five straight that not only gave the Gaels the lead, but also secured the dual meet win.
At 157, Will Hudson won a battle of unranked wrestlers, 8-3, over Spalding’s Josh Taylor. After No. 2 Nicholas Barnabae was given a forfeit at 165, St. Joe was holding their first lead of the match, 22-16.
Another swing match occurred at 175 with St. Joe’s Gabe McWhite squaring off with Zane Corman, McWhite registered five takedowns against his foe and ended with a 14-4 major decision.
“I was thinking, you know like, I guess, everything depended on me in that moment,” McWhite reflected. “So, I tried to just lay it all out on the mat and yeah, I got gassed out, but still did the job. You know, I went out there with the same mentality, with confidence, and you know I just did my thing to the best of my abilities. I listened to my coach and everything, tried to execute some moves and it worked.”
No. 1 Austin Lewis made quick work of Luke Emmons at 190, planting the Cavalier mid-way through the opening frame, 1:04, to secure the win for the Gaels.
“I knew that a pin would seal the deal for the team,” explained Lewis. “I had to go out and just take it to him. I thought I did really good, sealed the deal for the team, but it was also a team effort, everybody had to go out and wrestle strong to win the match.”
Spalding’s Peter Jerdal won a battle of unranked competitors at 215 over Conor Hewet by fall with three seconds left in the second period, 3:57. No, 2 Delmar White (285) ended things positively for the Cavaliers with a first period decking of Sahir West, :45, to draw team score to 32-30.
“We have four of our upper weights returning to the mat for the first time this season and I felt they did an outstanding job,” Barnabae interjected. “Heavyweight Sahir West and 215lber Conor Hewet wrestled their very first matches today. I was proud of their effort and expect continued improvement with their performances. They are both very hard workers and very coachable. Gabe McWhite also had his first debut on the mat this season. He is another talented athlete, and we expect him to finish strong as the season continues.
The close score left Laidley thinking about what could have been.
“I'm a little disappointed,” Laidley remarked. “(It) came down to a two-point match. We think we would have had a shot. (Our) 20 pounder wasn't healthy today. If Henry Gessford's in there, I think this we keep it close, maybe a decision and that's the difference in the match.”
“I think everything went the way we thought it would go. There's a couple of bonus points out there I thought we could have gotten at 126, and we were close until they got a reversal. But we're happy, we're young, it's early in the season. We'll bring it at the end. I think we're a better tournament team because we have a couple of kids up top that are brand new to the sport. Two-year wrestlers. I think in the tournaments and the MIAAs we're gonna do very well.”
In some of the earlier proceedings, No. 6 Isisah Womack (St. Frances) dealt Tamai a 4-3 loss. No. 10 Chase Carpintieri (St. Frances) handled Gessford, 11-0, at 157. Cannaday won a 6-1 meeting with Carpintieri.
Spalding’s Tania Fernandez added another highly regarded boy to her hitlist in the dual with St. Frances. Fernandez, who is fresh off winning the Midlands tournament against college wrestlers, handled private school state placer, No. 13 Kamren Griffin.
“It’s always nice to come out on top at the end of the night,” said Barnabae. “There were a number of exciting matches and both teams battled hard in every match. I am sure the fans enjoyed the competition. I believe there are a number of areas that the team can improve upon, and we shall begin to work on those immediately. Our goal is to make those improvements and peak by the MIS State Tournament.”
Mt. St. Joseph 32, Archbishop Spalding 30
106-Eli Chesla (AS) pinned Angelo Kibby, 1:26
113-Quentin Bailey (AS) dec Joseph Cooper, 7-5
120-Jake Tamai (MSJ) pinned Roc Zang, 2:35
126-Sean Garretson (AS) dec Bryan Santangelo, 12-8
132-Vincent Paolucci (AS) dec Tyler Stephens, 6-3
138-Carter Nogle (MSJ) maj-dec Zane Leitzel, 14-2
144-Ryder Kolat (AS) dec Jaden Diggs, 6-5
150-Cameron Cannaday (MSJ) dec Charlie Gessford, 4-1
157-William Hudson (MSJ) dec Josh Taylor, 8-3
165-Nicholas Barnabae (MSJ) won by forfeit
175-Gabe McWhite (MSJ) maj-dec Zane Corman, 14-4
190-Austin Lewis (MSJ) pinned Luke Emmons, 1:04
215-Peter Jerdal (AS) pinned Conor Hewet, 3:51
285-Delmar White (AS) pinned Sahir West, :45
Other Notable Results from the Quad
106-Eli Chesla (AS) dec Joey Womack (SFA). 8-6
106-Angelo Kibby (MSJ) dec Dave Vitilio (AC), 2-1
106-Joey Womack dec Angelo Kibby, 2-0
113-Quentin Bailey (AS) pinned Jaden Shird (SFA), 2:57
113-Joseph Cooper (MSJ) tech-fall Jaden Shird, 15-0
120-Isisah Womack (SFA) maj-dec Roc Zang (AS)
120-Isisah Womack dec Jake Tamai (MSJ), 4-3
126-Tania Fernández (AS) dec Kamren Griffin (SFA), 13-7
126-Bryan Santángelo (MSJ) dec Kamren Griffin, 5-0
132-Sean Garretson (AS) tech-fall Maurice Womack (SFA), 17-2
132-Tyler Stephens (MSJ) maj-dec Oscar Davis (AC), 15-5
132-Michael Groszkowski (AS) pinned Oscar Davis, 5:34
132-Tyler Stephens dec Maurice Womack, 4-1
138-Vincent Paolucci (AS) pinned Noah Shird (SFA), 1:45
138-Carter Nogle (MSJ) pinned Noah Shird
150-Logan Brown (SFA) dec Ryder Kolat (AS), 8-4
150-Jaden Diggs (MSJ) dec Logan Brown, 10-6
157-Chase Carpintieri (SFA) maj-dec Charlie Gessford (AS), 11-0
157-Cameron Cannaday (MSJ) dec Chase Carpintieri, 6-1
165-Nicolas Barnabae (MSJ) pinned Dylan Fish (AC)
165-Nicholas Barnabae pinned Derrick Grant (SFA)
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