Cape wrestling crowns five Henlopen Conference champions
Turn the dial on the wrestling slow cooker to high heat for one final weekend of insane tournament wrestling. The DIAA Individual Wrestling Championships will take place Friday and Saturday, Feb. 25 and 26, at Cape Henlopen High School. The full brackets are published and available at trackwrestling.com
Teams are coming off three qualifying conference tournaments: Henlopen, Blue Hen and Independent. Top four placers from each tournament in each weight class are automatic qualifiers, and there are four at-large berths per weight class. All brackets are full with 16 wrestlers.
Cape Henlopen crowned a record five Henlopen champions Feb. 19, beginning with Mikey Frederick at 145 pounds; C.J. Fritchman, 160; Carson Kammerer, 170; Alex Taylor, 195; and Dalton Deevey, 220.
Sussex Central had three champions: Malachi Stratton at 106 pounds, Chase Murray, 113, and Josh Negron, 182.
Milford claimed 132-pounder Jack Thode, a four-time champion, and Aaron Briscoe at 138.
Smyrna crowned a pair of champions with Gabe Giampetro, 120, and Qwantez Watkins, 126.
Nurrideen Ahmad-Statts, 152 pounds, of Lake Forest and T.J. Burke of Indian River were also conference champions.
Team scoring for the meet saw Caesar Rodney with 252.5 points followed by Cape Henlopen at 247, Smyrna with 221 and Sussex Central with 199 squeezing near the top.
“Caesar Rodney got out front by doing great in all the wrestle backs, getting bonus points and winning three overtime matches. They are the only team in the state to advance all 14 of their wrestlers to the state tournament,” said Cape head coach Chris Mattioni. The team’s performance saw the Riders finish on top without crowning a single conference champion.
“I’ll take a state [duals] championship and five conference champions every year,” said Mattioni, who was named Henlopen Conference Coach of the Year.
Fourteen Henlopen Conference teams competed over two days in front of a full house at Sussex Central High School.
Top three seeds in numerical order for the upcoming state individual tournament in each weight class are as follows:
106: Malachi Stratton, Sussex Central; Alex McEvoy, Christiana; Gavin Mundy, Delaware Military Academy
113: Eddie Radecki, Caravel; Cameron Davis, Salesianum; Julian Rapuno, Delcastle
120 : Gabe Giampietro, Smyrna; Trevor Copes, Milford; Evan Cordrey, Sussex Central
126 : Luke Poore, Caravel; Brandon Carr, Appoquinimink; Qwantez Watkins, Smyrna
132: Jack Thode, Milford; Dylan Knight, Caravel; Daniel Williams, DMA
138: Daniel Sinclair, William Penn; Michael Kling, Caravel; Aaron Briscoe, Milford
145: Mikey Frederick, Cape; Abdullah Ahmad-Statts, Lake Forest; Carson Kist, Salesianum
152: Nurridden Ahmad-Statts, Lake Forest; Garrett Hudson, Smyrna; Averi Copes, Milford
160: Alex Poore, Caravel; CJ Fritchman, Cape, Tim O’Hara, Milford
170: Nick Hall, Caravel; Carson Kammerer, Cape; Brock Conner, Caesar Rodney
182: Josh Negron, Sussex Central; Justin Griffith, Sanford; Matthew Duarte, Caravel
195: Max Agresti, Salesianum; Alex Taylor, Cape; Brendan Timmons, Middletown
220: Dalton Deevey, Cape; Tyler August, DMA; James Miller, Salesianum
285: T.J. Burke, Indian River; Lucas Ruppert, Cape; Theo Kerr, McKean.
This year’s event is not a DIAA state tournament. There are no divisions, but trophies will be awarded to the first- and second-place teams.
