PROSPECT PARK >> Chichester senior Marquell Hudnell is a relative newcomer to wrestling. He picked up the sport on a whim as a freshman.
“I didn’t play football my first year so I thought I would give wrestling a try,” Hudnell said. “A lot of people were talking about it and how tough of a sport it was so I decided to come out for the team. It was kind of hard at first, but I kept with it and got better over the years.”
It’s a decision he’s glad he made.
“Wrestling has kept me in shape, helped me stay disciplined and helped me become a better person,” Hudnell said.
Veteran Chi coach Jim Beletti can attest to that. He sings Hudnell’s praises every chance he get, and did so again after Hudnell, among others, helped the Eagles take over sole possession of first place with a 40-31 victory over Interboro on the road.
Hudnell pinned Interboro’s Jerry Curran at 160 pounds, the second of seven straight wins in the match to put the Eagles (6-4 overall, 2-0 Del Val) firmly in control.
“Marquell’s having an awesome year,” Beletti said. “He’s an incredible learner. He’ll take a couple of moves that we show him and he’ll pick out the ones he likes and you can see him studying them in the wrestling room. This kid did not wrestle until the ninth grade. That’s how fast he’s picked it up. He’s an incredible athlete. He’s fast. This is his senior year, we’re just hoping for some good things for him.”
Hudnell’s rise has been steady, not meteoric. He was fourth in the Del Val championships as a freshman, advanced to the District 1 Class 3A West tournament as a sophomore and the PIAA Southeast Regional last season. There’s only one level left.
“I want to get to states,” Hudnell said.
He’s off to a good start. Hudnell has won 11 in a row to improve to 17-1 on the season. Seven of those victories have been by fall, two by technical fall and one each by major decision and forfeit. And he’s been doing so on an aching right shoulder that needed treatment from Interboro’s athletic trainer after the match.
“I’ve had it since football season,” said Hudnell, who played fullback and inside linebacker for the Eagles. “It’s a lingering thing.”
Taking over sole possession of first place in the Del Val helped ease some of the pain in Hudnell’s shoulder. The Eagles still have to beat Academy Park and Penn Wood to claim the league title for the third year in a row, but the goal coming in was to send the message that the road to the Del Val League championship still goes through Chi and the Eagles did so with a gritty win over the Bucs.
The Eagles sent that message by winning seven straight matches from 152 through 285 pounds. Chi won three of those bouts by fall, two by forfeit and once each by major decision and decision.
Tymeir Bush got the ball rolling with a hard-fought, 13-11, decision over Isiah Fusaro at 152 pounds. Hudnell followed with his win, a pin of Curran in 3:29. Nate Mariotti won by forfeit at 170. Nick Baney scored a 13-3 major decision over Aaron Stankiewicz. Chris Mattero picked up a forfeit win at 195, and Matt Richardson and Faizan Raza closed out the run with back-to-back pins at 220 and 285, repectively. Richardson pinned Shalom Thomas in 3:06 and Raza decked Jacob Bierlein in 23 seconds to seal the victory.
“The game plan was for everyone to step up,” Richardson said. We couldn’t afford anyone to go to their backs. We had to fight and fight to the last whistle. We knew it was going to be a dogfight to the end and that the crowd was going to be loud. We had to tune all that out and wrestle and that’s what we did. We were able to put it away in that middle stretch.”
A flip of the coin played a role in that key stretch. The Eagles won the coin flip, which allowed them to send out their wrestler first. Since the Bucs were without 170-pounder John Hanna, Interboro coach Dan Tobin moved Stankiewicz to 182 pounds, hoping for a matchup with Chi’s William Asbury. However, Beletti decided to go with Blaney at 182 and the move paid off.
“Will’s been good for us, but it was a better matchup for us with Nick against Stankiewicz,” Beletti said. “We were hoping to get that matchup.”
“They were able to throw out first and we were stuck,” Tobin said. “It is what it is.”
Dual meets in wrestling are a chess match and the Eagles were able to make the right moves to inch a little closer to another Del Val League title.
“We want to keep that title for a few more years,” Hudnell said.”
