Puliti gets 100th win as GV rolls past Ridley
RIDLEY TWP. >> Every time Kevin Puliti goes into the wrestling room at Garnet Valley High and looks up at the 100-win banner, he sees a familiar name.
His older brother, Nick, who graduated in 2017, occupies the last spot on that banner. With no room for any more names, Garnet Valley will have to start a new 100-win banner with Kevin’s name at the top.
Puliti reached that milestone when he pinned Ridley’s Chris Green in only 1:23 to spur the Jaguars to a 50-16 victory over the Green Raiders. The victory kept Garnet Valley in a first-place tie in the Central League with Strath Haven.
“It means everything to me,” the younger Puliti said of his milestone victory at the 120-pound class, improving his career record to 100-39. “As my dad said, one Puliti finished it and another Puliti will start the new one. When I come in and visit from college it’s going to be nice to see my name up there. Hopefully, I can get my name on the three other banners we have up there.”
One banner is for district champions, another is for regional champions and the third is for wrestlers who place at states. Those are three lofty goals, but not completely out of reach for Puliti, Garnet Valley coach Rocco Fantazzi said.
“To get 100 wins with our schedule, our team, our program, that’s a feat in itself,” Fantazzi said. “It’s not easy to get. He has all the talent in the world and he just has to believe in himself. If he believes in himself he’s going to have a great run in the postseason.”
Puliti is carrying on a family tradition that started with his father, Mike, who wrestled at Chichester. Nick Puliti began wrestling when he was five, Kevin said, and Kevin got into the sport at age four. If Puliti does get to Hersey, site of the PIAA championships, he’ll be following in his brother’s footsteps once again.
Nick Puliti went 117-56 in his career and went to the state tournament twice.
“Nick showed me a lot about wrestling,” Kevin said. “My dad showed me a lot, too, in youth wrestling, but when my brother qualified for states, he worked with me through the spring and summer trying to get me to the next level and it meant a lot to me.”
He’ll be following big brother again when he attends Temple next year. Nick is studying architecture, but stopped wrestling after his freshman year, his father said. Although wrestling is a club sport at Temple, Kevin plans to continue his career while majoring in mechanical engineering, where he hopes to work in robotics or with cars.
“I think it would be really cool to work for a car company to make a better engine or see how I can improve things like mechanical arms on robots,” Puliti said. “I’m looking forward to it.”
With Puliti’s help, the Jaguars continued on a roll. Garnet Valley has won 12 dual matches in a row and 16 of 17 after starting the season with three straight losses at the Bealer Memorial Duals at Boyertown. The biggest win during that streak was a 33-32 victory over fourth-seeded Council Rock North in the District 1 Class 3A Duals last Thursday. That earned Garnet Valley a trip to the quarterfinals against fifth-seeded Owen J. Roberts Friday night at Upper Dublin. A win would earn GV (16-4, 6-0 Central League) a berth in the state team tournament.
“We took some tough losses at the Boyertown Duals, but when we wrestled Council Rock North last Thursday we were all in that match,” Puliti said. “Some of us knew we weren’t going to win, but our jobs were to not get pinned, majored or tech falled. I lost a major decision, but a lot of other guys came up big. We got pins where we needed them and even the guys that lost didn’t give up any bonus points.”
That’s the same approach the Jaguars will take Friday night.
“That’s how we build, how we grow and how we do things,” Fantazzi said. “And there’s a lot of work in the practice room to fix things. We always go into the practice room with a purpose and these guys understand that and build off of it. They don’t get upset because they lose early in the seasons. We’re building for the postseason. We’re building for the future and they understand that. That’s how we try to do great things and keep this tradition going.”
Elsewhere in the League:
RADNOR 63, SPRINGFIELD 18 >> Fred Mehra and Zack Fluck set the tone for the Raiders with back-toback first-period pins at 113 and
120 pounds. Mehra needed just 44 seconds for his victory and Fluck was finished in 1:40 to stake Radnor to an 18-0 lead.
Nick LaVine (132), Bobby Hydrisko (170), Damian Falcone
(182), Anton Skvortsov (195), Keaton
Central
Monaghan (220) and Daetrel Jerome (285) also won by fall for Radnor.
Jake Methlie (126), Dan Gallagher (152) and Ethan Scott (160) were victorious by pin for the Cougars.
STRATH HAVEN 63, PENNCREST 18 >> The Panthers opened the match with five straight wins, three by fall, to keep pace with Garnet Valley in the race for the Central League title.
Aiden Mally and Koll Peichel won by fall at 160 and 170, respectively, to get things started for Strath Haven. Gabe Federico (192), Ben Farabaugh (195) and Ian Trotter (220) all won to expand the lead to 27-0.
Farabaugh won by fall, as did Galvan Gihunia (113), Andrew Reilly (120), Sal Kaufman (132), Chase Barlow (138) and Simon Bolinger (152).
Damien Martin (285), Nicko Partsanakis (126) and Tom Huggett (145) won by fall for the Lions.
In the Del Val League: ACADEMY PARK 38, CHICHESTER 26 >> The Knights won seven of the last eight matches to erase a 20-6 deficit and set up a showdown with Interboro next week for the Del Val League title.
Thomas Setiner got this started with a second period pin at 145. Nasir Bush (152), Issac Moldanado
(160), Liam Grey (170), Utensee Nankay (182) and Cole Root followed with wins to give AP a 3220 lead. Xavier Newson pinned Perez Abhullmen at 285 to seal the victory.
Charles Thompson (120), Chase Whartnaby (126), Mason McClure and Blake Bryant (128) staked Chi to the early lead.
In the Inter-Ac League: GERMANTOWN ACADEMY 44, EPISCOPAL ACADEMY 29 >> The Patriots won four of the first five matches, two by fall, one by technical fall and another by forfeit and the Churchmen were unable to climb out of that 23-6 hole.
Flynn Kearney (126), Charles Maier (152) and Paul McLaughlin (285) all won by fall for EA. McLaughlin only needed 14 seconds to pin GA’s Sean Spinosa. Kearney’s win also came in the first period.