Cape wrestling wins Henlopen Conference meet
The Cape Henlopen wrestling team, powered by five weight-class champions, won the Henlopen Conference championship meet Feb. 25 at Milford Central Academy for the first time in school history.
The Vikings scored 256 points to earn the title. They were followed by Sussex Central with 252.5, Caesar Rodney with 222, Smyrna with 174 and Laurel with 122.
“Absolutely the first time going back over 50 years,” said coach Chris Mattioni. “All wins matter, including the points awarded in wrestlebacks. It is a grind. You just have to hang tough.”
The inspirational story of the meet was Patrick Donahue, inserted into the 215-pound bracket, moving up from 190 after being out sick for a week.
Donahue upset top seed Cullen Parsell (31-5) of Lake Forest in the quarterfinals, then bested Ryder Robinson (35-18) of Sussex Central 10-0 in the semifinals. He won the championship bout 6-1 over Khelei Tillman (29-7) of Woodbridge.
The coaches voted sophomore Donahue the Outstanding Wrestler of the meet.
“I knew I was the bottom seed in my bracket,” Donahue said afterward, holding his Outstanding Wrestler plaque. “My coaches have been telling me to be confident, yet cautious.”
Alex Taylor, Cape’s captain and a repeat champion at 190 pounds, secured a 9-3 win over Ivan Neal of Sussex Central in the finals.
“I’ve been dogging Patrick for three months in the wrestling room,” Taylor said. “I was telling him, ‘You’re going to win this thing.’”
Nick Walker, Cape’s freshman 132-pounder, was seeded third in his bracket. He led off the championship competition under the spotlight. Walker, using an attack style and tough-on-top approach, defeated Talan Savage of Sussex Central in the semifinals, then avenged regular-season close losses to Nathan Moore of Caesar Rodney with a 5-3 championship victory.
Luke Bender, a senior who missed last season with an elbow injury, pinned his way to a championship, decking Cameron Cataldi of Caesar Rodney at 5:50 of the championship match.
C.J. Fritchman, Cape’s 175-pounder, repeated as conference champion, defeating Gabe Cannon of Sussex Central 6-1.
Cape crowned five conference champions over 14 weight classes. Caesar Rodney had three winners, while Sussex Central and Laurel each had two, and Lake Forest and Indian River had one apiece.
Cape’s Josh Wright lost 13-2 in the 138-pound finals to Stanley Pete of Laurel. Andrew Schaen lost the 150-pound championship bout 8-4 to Nurrideen Ahmad-Statts of Lake Forest.
Other champions were:
Alex McEvoy of CR (106) over Anthony Edwards of Sussex Tech 5-2
Malachi Stratton of SC (113) over Cole Moffett of CR 5-1
Nick Moore of CR (120) over Vincent Jenkins of Milford 7-0
Trevor Copes of CR (126) over Qwantez Watkins of Smyrna 9-4
Andrew Long of SC (144) over Case Dempsey of Lake Forest 10-3
Jayvion Chandler of IR (165) over Jayden Craig of SC 11-3
Joseph Baynard of Laurel (285) over Chijioke Euile of Smyrna in overtime.
Takedowns - Cape freshman Tripp Gannon (106) and Cale Baker (113) each placed third. Max Meadows (120) placed sixth. Holt Baker(126) placed fourth. Brady Cole (144) placed seventh. Hayden Wheeler (165) and Tyler Costello (285) each placed seventh. The DIAA Individual Wrestling State Championship is set for Friday and Saturday, March 3 and 4, at Cape Henlopen High School. Shane Miller of Sussex Central was voted the Henlopen Conference Coach of the Year.
