By Benny Mitchell
The Delcastle Invitational Wrestling Tournament has become the bellwether of what is to come in the Delaware wrestling scene in February. This year was no different as while top ranked in Division I Salesianum won the team title the brackets saw three wrestlers ranked number one in the 302Sports wrestling rankings fall at the tournament.
The Sals scored 294.5 points to lead the 26 team event while Wm. Penn finished second with 228.5 followed by St. Georges 201.5, Smyrna 197.5 and Caesar Rodney 193.5
Individually Salesianum crowned five champions while Wm. Penn had three.
Gabe Campanelli won the first title for Salesianum with a 10-4 decision over top ranked Mason Milligan of First State Military at 120 pounds. Dominic Lucian followed with a title at 126 pinning Smyrna’s Colton Price in 1:05.
Carter Davis won the 144 pound championship with a 16-9 decision over Tyler Rosan of Polytech and then two matches later Santino Sianni pinned Milford’s Davonne Dallas in 5:22 at 157 pounds.
Sianni’s pin came in the third period of a 0-0 match where he chose top to start the third period.
“I’m comfortable on top so I had to take the top, I really stayed with what we do in the room, wrestling hard through every position as hard as we can. Legs have worked pretty good for me,” Sianni said.
Defending state champion Brayden Ranauto captured the fifth title for the Sals winning the 190 pound championship by pinning Smyrna’s Teagan Gratkowski in 2:00.
Julian Phillips came from the third seed at 106 pounds pulling two upsets on his way to a championship for Wm. Penn. Phillips pinned Smyrna’s Jaden Uhde in 3:58 in the championship match.
The Colonials Jamir Ross won a 19-4 technical fall over Jaden Gunther of St. Georges to win the 150 pound title and Camar Miller upset number two ranked Bennett Brumbley of Sussex Tech 7-2 to win the 165 pound bracket.
Sussex Tech had a pair of champions in Anthony Andrews (132) and Logan King (138). Andrew, another defending state champion, pinned Kaquan Holland of Wm. Penn in 4:00 while King won the very competitive 138 pound title with a 13-2 major decision over J.J. Spence of Caesar Rodney.
McKean put a pair of Highlanders on top of the podium as Jose Washington decisioned Tower Hill’s Keenan Duffy 8-4 to win the 175 pound title. Vaughn Brooks later won the 215 pound championship with a 9-2 decision over Ryan Collingsworth of Milford.
Defending state champion Ben Donato of Caesar Rodney took home the 113 pound title for the Riders winning by injury default over Michael Pierson of Smyrna and Greg Lockett of Milford rounded out the championship round winning the 285 pound title with a 2-1 decision over Matt Brunner of Caravel Academy.
