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ROBBINSVILLE: DiDonato captures two titles

Last-match win makes him, team district wrestling champs

By Kyle Moylan, Sports Editor
   Right before Brandon DiDonato went out for the start of the 285-pound District 25 title match, Robbinsville High Coach Rich Gildner put his arm around his wrestler and said, “If you win, we win.”
   It was a heck of a time to be putting extra pressure on a wrestler, but both DiDonato and Gildner agreed it was the right thing to say.
   DiDonato responded by pinning Nottingham’s Keith Meseroll at the 2:33 mark. The points earned for DiDonato’s title also pushed Robbinsville past Rancocas Valley (149 points to 145.5) for the overall District 25 team title in the 11-squad field.
   ”I love the pressure being on me,” DiDonato said. “It was just amazing. You have to do this for yourself and your team. I’m just staggered now.”
   DiDonato and Meseroll were scoreless for most of the first period. DiDonato got a late takedown and then put Meseroll on his back, nearly getting a pin before the buzzer sounded.
   ”I wasn’t disappointed,” DiDonato said about not getting the pin in the first period. “I’m up 5-0 now. I’m in a good spot. We’ll see how it goes.”
   How it went was DiDonato putting Meseroll back on his back and getting the pin 33 seconds into the second period.
   DiDonato jumped into Gildner’s arms. The entire Robbinsville team — which had gathered near the mat for the final match — then joined in the celebration.
   ”This is only our third year scoring as a team,” Gildner said. “We were 2-16 as a team our first year. It’s amazing to see how far we’ve come.”
   While Robbinsville covered a lot of ground over the past three years, this past Saturday seemed like a couple of marathons all by itself. Robbinsville never had a District 25 individual champion before Saturday. By the time wrestling finished at host Steinert High on Saturday night, Robbinsville had four of them.
   David Bossie earned the first title in Robbinsville’s history when he defeated Rancocas Valley’s Mitchell Jablonski, 9-4, at 103 pounds.
   While he ended up winning the District 25 title, Bossie came into the week without a guarantee that he would even get a chance to wrestle in the event. He first had to beat Brian O’Toole in a wrestle-off for the right to represent Robbinsville at 103 pounds. Bossie won in overtime.
   ”The thing that went through my mind the most was the fact we could be wrestling for a District 25 title or nothing at all,” Bossie said. “(O’Toole) is absolutely the second best 103-pounder in the districts. I didn’t have to go to overtime against anyone else.”
   Usually when two wrestlers are as good as Bossie and O’Toole, one will go up a weight class. With Jared Icenhower, another District 25 champion, wrestling for Robbinsville at 112, that wasn’t much of an option.
   ”I’m the first wrestler from Robbinsville to ever win a district title,” Bossie smiled. “I did it a few minutes before (Icenhower) did (laughs).”
   Icenhower defeated New Egypt’s Andrew Milligan, 15-8, in the 112-pound title match.
   ”It’s not easy getting a spot in the low weights on our team,” said Icenhower, a sophomore who was on the junior varsity team last year. “We usually pick up a lot of points down low.”
   During the regular season, Icenhower will often wrestle at 119 pounds to open up a spot for O’Toole.
   ”Sometimes they’re stronger at 119 pounds,” Icenhower said. “I’m not thinking about that. I’m just trying to wrestle smart every match.”
   Robbinsville also was well represented at 119 pounds as Jeff Bruno placed third. The top three finishers from each weight class advance to the Region VII Tournament. The champions move into the Region VII quarterfinals Friday. The other two wrestlers needed to win a match this past Tuesday, after the Messenger-Press deadline, in a Region VII preliminary round to keep their season going.
   Robbinsville’s fourth champion came at 145 pounds when Jordon Hankins defeated New Egypt’s Mike Schwarze, 10-6. Like Bossie and Icenhower, Hankins is just a sophomore.
   ”It’s a lot of motivation when you see the way guys moved up in weight classes for the team (during the regular season),” Hankins said. “We’re a team. We started out with a good feeder program. The older guys on the team have been the foundation for the program. Now we just seem to keep adding talent.
   ”To get a district title is huge. It’s the first time we’ve won anything.”
   Andrew Harvilla placed second at 160 pounds. Jeff Condit (125), Drew Reca (140) and Mark Normandin (152) didn’t advance to Region VII action, but all three added what proved to be vital points to Robbinsville’s score by placing fourth.
   They all combined to help put DiDonato in the spot to be a hero. And Gildner made sure he let DiDonato know he had to save the whole team.
   ”I wouldn’t have done that with a lot of other kids,” Gildner said. “There are a lot of kids that you don’t want to give that extra pressure. I told him because I knew he could handle it, thrive on it. This is the way you want to win. You don’t want to win because someone else loses. You want to win it for yourself.”
   DiDonato did.
   ”My heart was pounding,” DiDonato said with a laugh. “So much hard work went into that. Then when you win for you and your team, it all comes out. So much joy. So much excitement.”