Curtis Nelson leaped up, flexed his muscles and let out a yell after he pinned Upper Dublin’s Jake Evans in the third period to win the 107-pound title at the District 1 Class 3A South sectional last Saturday.
The Ridley sophomore still had a huge smile on his face as he stepped on the awards podium to receive his gold medal.
“I was excited,” Nelson said. “It was my first time first time getting first at districts. I was real happy.”
A year ago, he lost to Haverford’s Cole McFarland in the 106-pound final. This victory, Nelson’s third by fall in the tournament, punched his ticket to the Class 3A Southeast Regional at Souderton Area High School for the second year in a row. He was fourth last year and qualified for the PIAA Tournament.
“It feels all that hard work paid off,” Nelson said.
Nelson will have a lot of company from Delco at Souderton when wrestling gets under way Friday, with first-round matchups starting at 4:30 and the quarterfinals slated for 8. He’s one of seven Ridley wrestlers and 37 overall from Delco who qualified for the Class 3A regional. Four wrestlers from Archbishop Carroll will take part in the Class 3A Southeast Regional at Bethlehem Liberty. The top five wrestlers in Class 3A and the top six from Class 2A qualify for next weekend’s PIAA Tournament at the Giant Center in Hershey.
Wrestling resumes with consolation matches at 9:30 Saturday. The semifinals are slated for 11 a.m., and the championships, third- and fifth-place matches are set to begin at 6 p.m.
In Class 2A, wrestling begins with the preliminary rounds at 4:30 Friday, followed by quarterfinals and a first round of consolations. The tournament continues Saturday with second-round consolations at 9:30 a.m., semifinals at 11 a.m. and consolation and championship finals at 4.
Ridley, Strath Haven and Sun Valley lead the way with seven wrestlers each among Delco schools. Strath Haven won the South Sectional team title, while Sun Valley claimed the West crown. Garnet Valley, Haverford, Interboro and Radnor have three wrestlers at the regional. Chichester has two, while Academy Park and Penn Wood have one each.
Nelson, McFarland, Sun Valley’s Alexander Gamble-Williams and Strath Haven’s Sam Milligan and Ben Farabaugh are the only returning state qualifiers from Delco. McFarland finished third at 106 pounds at the regional championship and is Delco’s only returning state medalist after finishing fifth last year. Gamble-Williams was fifth in the regional at 152. Milligan placed third at 189 pounds. Farabaugh was fourth at 285.
Nelson’s Ridley teammate David Rainey is headed back to the regional, too, only this time as a champion. He pinned Strath Haven’s Andrew Reilly in the 160-pound South final.
“Last year I took second, ironically against another Strath Haven kid, Kelton Brunner,” Rainey said. “(Strath Haven coach) Tony (Gilliano) runs a great program down there and I’m always seeing them. For me, this was Step 1 of all the goals I wanted to achieve before high school is done, and now I want to take it to the next level. You have to win at regionals to get to states.”
Interboro freshman Anthony Lascio had to beat a familiar foe, Academy Park’s James Wallace, to win his first sectional title. Lascio pulled out an 8-0 major decision to win the crown and advance to the regional for the first time in his career.
“I knew what he was going to do,” said Lascio, who beat Wallace twice during the regular season, once by major decision and once by fall. “I knew he was going come at me with a lot of different throws so I just defended that.”
Lascio is one of five Delco freshmen at the regional. The others are Interboro teammate Ryan Rossiter (127), Joe DiMarino (127) and Paxton Hunt (139) of Garnet Valley, and Strath Haven’s Michael Spielman (152).
