Columbia wrestling tops ‘Toga in season opener
Late gamble pays off for Blue Devils in road win
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. >> With a change in the Suburban Council wrestling schedule for the 2018-2019 season the endof-year crossover matches are now moved to the beginning of the season and planned ahead. If there was a big winner in Wednesday night’s opening night it was the athletic directors who put three premier contests up front.
Columbia High School made the rare trip north to face Saratoga Springs in dual meet action made even more exotic as
the opener for both squads with the Blue Devils riding home with a season-opening 46-32 win with a several gambles paid off.
The meet began at 138 pounds, saw two ties, three lead changes, including a planned forfeit by Columbia Coach Anthony Servidone late at 113-pound to hand the Blue Streaks a precious one-point lead, 32-31, before a threematch sweep securing the win.
“We definitely rolled the dice there with an unknown coming up,” Columbia Coach Anthony Servidone said. “We had three matches left, 20, 26, 32.
“I felt good about 20 (Aiden Scott), 26 (Charlie Welcome) I thought could go either way and then at 32 (Jordan DiSanto) I didn’t know what we were going to get because it was his first varsity match. We ended up getting two pins and a decision, so that was good.”
Scott earned a 6-1 decision over Saratoga’s Zeph Watkins to re-take the lead, 34-32, earning a first period takedown, hitting a reverse in the second period and adding on two more in the final two-minute session passing on the lead to the final Columbia unknowns.
Blue Devil Charlie Welcome made a major leap in weight class from 99-pounds last year to 126 this year and pinned Vinny L’Hommedieu at 1:01 to secure the win.
“It was easier to get down to 99 than it is to get to 126 for me, but I wasn’t really that good last year,” Columbia’s Charlie Welcome said. “It was only my second year so I was still getting in the swing of things. This year the off-season just got me ready.”
Credit a growth spurt and off-season workouts for preparing Welcome for his opening night win.
“It was just lifting and working out at Kirby 3-Style Wrestling and with Harry Williams, just lifting and off-season wrestling,” Welcome said.
The margin gave Columbia sophomore Jordan DiSanto breathing room forced to wait until the final contest to step onto the mat before earning a second-period win over Saratoga’s Maxim Chuckrow at 3:02 for his first varsity win.
“In the beginning it was mostly the players that helped me a lot; they kept me relaxed because this was my first match, so I was pretty nervous.” Jordan DiSanto said. “It definitely got in my head, the weigh-ins, it got it in my head, and I shouldn’t have let that happen.”
Chuckrow took down DiSanto for an early lead with less than a minute left in the first period, but DiSanto quickly escaped. The Blue Devil reversed his position to open the second period but allowed Chuckrow to escape before hitting a takedown with 1:05 left and then put him on his back for the pin with eight seconds left.
“It was just body positioning, keeping my hips up,” DiSanto said. “I worked a lot with coach and at Kirby 3-Style Wrestling; we did a lot of that, that’s what helped me.”
Saratoga Coach Kris West was surprised by the offered forfeit by Columbia at 113, but understood the strategy involved.
“That was a match that I kind of bookmarked in, Griffin (Biviano) is one of our better wrestlers, he was third in the section, we kind of had that penciled in as a win going in,” Kris West said. “I would have liked to have seen Griffin actually wrestle the match and actually get the six points or earn the points and get that under his belt to start the season off. I knew the next two matches were going to determine the dual meet.
“The kid at 120 is tough, Zeph (Watkins) is a pretty tough kid, he’s a 10th grader, I knew that was going to be a close match, 126 that was up in the air, I didn’t know what to expect out of that kid, he was their 99-pounder last year so he made a big jump up, then 132.”