Episcopal pins down title at CHA Invitational

by TOM UTESCHER

More than a dozen teams turned up for last Saturday's Chestnut Hill Academy Wrestling Invitational Tournament, and when the mats were finally rolled up at the end of the event, Episcopal Academy had dethroned defending champ Wilmington Friends School to become the 2004 team champion.

Three weight class winners and four other finalists helped the Churchmen compile 210.5 points in the team standings, while Wilmington was runner-up with 136.5. Resting several wrestlers due to injury, host Chestnut Hill only entered athletes in nine of the 14 classes, and took fifth overall (with 113 points) as junior Sam Gilbert (171 lbs.) and senior Sam Greenwood (189) each repeated as individual champions.

Cardinal Dougherty was third with 121 points, New Hope-Solebury High School was fourth with 117.5, and George School finished just behind CHA with 104 points.

The tournament's Outstanding Wrestler award was shared by two seniors, Cardinal Dougherty 135-pounder Fran O'Brien, and Archbishop Carroll 145 Kyle Heselpoth.

There was another out-of-state team in attendance in addition to Wilmington Friends, and that was St. Christopher's School of Richmond, VA. The Saints are coached by Pete Shaifer, an area native who formerly piloted the programs at CHA, Episcopal, and Germantown Academy. Having entered his full squad at the GA tournament the previous weekend, Shaifer brought a group of junior varsity grapplers to the CHA event in order to give his freshmen and sophomores a taste of wrestling on the road.

All of CHA's Blue Devils won at least one match during the tourney. Senior Adam Klotz (160), junior Kevin Hines (135), and sophomores Chris Pittman (140) and Malcolm Taylor (130) each finished up 1-2 on the day. Hines and Taylor were each knocked out of the main draw by the eventual champions in their respective weight classes.

Freshman Alex Blenheim (112) and sophomore Joe Aversa (125) both pinned their first rivals in the tourney, then lost in the semifinal round to the class winners. Each would finish fourth after succumbing in the consolation finals; Blenheim suffered a late reversal for a 4-6 setback, and Aversa also lost by decision, 5-16.

Walt Wynne, the sophomore 103 for Chestnut Hill, went through to the finals along with Gilbert and Greenwood. Opening with a first-period pin, he also won by fall in the semifinals, sticking Wilmington Friends lightweight Maury Nolan in 55 seconds.

Gilbert was even more efficient, needing a combined total of one minute, 57 seconds to mat his quarterfinal and semifinal foes. He had won the tourney as a 160-pounder last year, while Greenwood remained at 189. Pinning his quarterfinal opponent early in the second round, Greenwood then notched a third-period pin in the semi's to move into the title bout.

CHA's Wynne scored the first takedown of the 103 lb. final, but Episcopal sophomore Glenn Gallagher had gained a 6-4 edge by the end of the opening round. After an exchange of reversals, Wynne escaped at the end of the second period to pull within one (7-8), but Gallagher took the bottom position at the start of the third and scored an escape to win the match, 9-7.

At 112, Dougherty senior Tom McHale built up a 9-0 lead in points before recording a third-period pin against Wilmington junior Sam Titone, who was the 103 lb. champion in 2003. Another WFS junior, Ben Altman, was last year's winner at 112, and this time he found himself in the 119 lb. final opposing Ricky Brooman, an 11th grader from Episcopal. Altman went up 5-1 in the first period and held on to win 5-3 as a second-round escape by Brooman provided the only other points scored.

Episcopal senior Eric Minnick, the Outstanding Wrestler of the 2003 tournament, repeated as the 125 lb. champ, rolling up a 9-0 major decision over a sophomore from George School, Jorge Galindo. Another Churchman came out on the short end of the 130 lb. final; senior Henry Stewart's lone point came on an escape in the second period as he fell, 5-1, to New Hope-Solebury junior Steve Thiers. Fellow New Hope Lion Tom Ott, a 135 lb. senior, wasn't as fortunate, as he was pinned in 67 seconds by Cardinal Dougherty's O'Brien.

Carroll's Jim Ganley won the 130 lb. title at CHA as a junior last year, and now he added the 140 lb. championship to his laurels, pinning George School senior Ted Cummiskey late in the first period. Heselpoth was the other finalist for the Patriots, now wrestling at 145 after winning the CHA crown at 135 in 2003. Two takedowns gave him a 4-1 lead over EA junior Charles Alexander at the end of the first period, and he held the lead through the next two frames to secure a 10-6 decision.

One of the closest finals was the 152 lb. contest featuring Dougherty's Paul Corbett and Wilmington Friends' Cory Tieste, both seniors. Only up 4-3 at the start of the third period, Corbett reversed to go up three, but Tieste escaped to make it 6-4. With a takedown by the Dougherty wrestler and another escape by Tieste, Corbett came away with an 8-5 victory.

Four takedowns and three back points gave Ben Klein, Wilmington's junior 160, an 11-2 lead in points midway through the second period. George School senior Oliver Fetter made it closer with an escape and takedown late in the round, but Klein kept him on the bottom throughout the third period for an 11-5 final.

After Chestnut Hill's Gilbert opened the 171 lb. match with a takedown, New Hope's Stefan King tied it up with a reversal, but the Lions senior didn't score again. An escape, takedown, and back points had Gilbert up 8-2 at the end of the first, and he went on to a 13-2 major decision.

The Blue Devils' Greenwood also rang up a major, 10-2, over Zach Morse, the junior 189 from Episcopal. The first round ended with the count still 0-0, but in the second Greenwood escaped, took down Morse, then turned him for three back points and a 6-0 advantage.

Episcopal capped its team victory with a win in the 215 lb. final by Ben Kissner, a junior who booked a first-round pin against New Hope senior Andy McInerney. Finally, George Washington High School senior Aliyev Valeh won the heavyweight championship by default. Washington, like the rest of the Philadelphia Public League schools, is now a member of the PIAA, whose rules prohibited Valeh from wrestling against fellow finalist Adam Atiyeh of Valley Forge Military Academy because Atiyeh is a post-graduate student. Atiyeh withdrew and Veleh was awarded the title.

OTHER TEAM RANKINGS: 7) George Washington - 79 pts. 8) Father Judge - 76 9) Archbishop Carroll - 56 10) Valley Forge - 47 11) St. Christopher - 46 12) Kensington H.S. - 28 13) Mercy Vocational - 0