The Nazareth senior redeemed himself after a 2016 loss at the event and avenged himself against a wrestler who defeated him this summer at Fargo.
Sammy Sasso didn’t pin just Anthony Artalona in their bout at FLO Wrestling’s Who’s No. 1 wrestling all-star match Sunday afternoon at Lehigh University’s Leeman-Turner Arena at Grace Hall.
The Nazareth senior also plated two bad memories when he stuck Artalona with a classic cradle at 3 minutes and 50 seconds of their 138-pound match, the final bout of the 11-match card in front of a near-sellout crowd in the sweltering old gym.
Bad memory number one: at 2016’s WNO, Sasso dropped an 8-3 decision to Nick Lee of Indiana, an enouncter Sasso called “(the) worst match I ever wrestled in my life.”
Bad memory number two: Artalona won a decision over Sasso in the freestyle Junior National semifinals, taking a decision on criteria after a 10-10 match.
Consider those slates wiped totally, completely clean
“I had my double revenge today,” said Sasso, the defending PIAA 3A champion at 138 pounds. “I got revenge for losing here last year and I got revenge from losing that match to Artalona at Fargo.”
The immediate prize is the #1 national ranking from FLO, at least, as Sasso entered #2 and Artalona #1 in FLO’s rankings.
Given what dominance Sasso showed Sunday, the other services may well follow by elevating Sasso to No. 1.
The first period of the bout saw a bit of a flurry to start, but it had calmed down 30 seconds into the bout and the rest of the period was spent by the wrestlers getting a feel for each other.
In the second, Artalona started on bottom and escaped 34 seconds into the period. Then, with about 40 seconds to go, an intense scramble developed on the edge of the mat. Sasso wrestled smartly to keep the action in bounds and eventually swung behind Artalona for a takedown with 22 seconds left.
But Sasso wanted a whole lot more than two points.
“At Fargo I had locked my cradle on him for a split second,” Sasso said. “This time I wanted to get back to the cradle and finish it off like I knew I could.”
Knowing from the summer he could get the cradle in, Sasso immediately worked for it after the takedown and once he got it the only question was: would the period run out before Artalona’s shoulder were slammed to the mat.
It took Sasso a couple of efforts to flip the Tampa Prep senior, but on the final, successful turn Artalona’s expression – a mixture of apprehension and a certain knowledge – told the tale. The pin followed a second or two later as the heavily pro-Sasso crowd roared in delight.
“He wanted to get me in his match but I wasn’t going to let him slow me down,” Sasso said.
If match pace and the killer cradle made the difference between Fargo and Bethlehem, the difference between Sunday and 2016’s WNO showing may well have been a more relaxed Sasso.
“Last year I was so worked up at WNO, I was tired before I even started my match, I warmed up so hard,” he said. “This time I was much more calm and composed.”
But perhaps even more fundamentally, Sasso said he needed to worry more about performance, not results.
“I had gotten so caught up in worrying about winning,” Sasso said. “I needed just to worry about going all out and wrestle my match. That’s all you can do, you can’t worry about anything except what you do and how to do it better. You don’t worry what he’s doing.”
Sasso know what he is doing now.
“Get back in the room and work,” he said. “There’s some good momentum from this, but this was just like any other match, just one match.”
But two bad memories scratched.
Otherwise, Pennsylvania and New Jersey wrestlers enjoyed a mixed day Sunday.
The Keystone State saw three winners in Sasso; Mifflin County’s Trent Hidlay, who decked Blair’s powerful Julian Ramirez in overtime at 170; and Montoursville’s Gavin Hoffman, who knocked off No. 1 Michael Beard of Malvern Prep in an action-packed 195-pound bout.
But Pat Glory of Delbarton, who looked as consistent, strong and mentally tough as any wrestler on the mat Sunday, throttled Jefferson-Morgan’s Gavin Teasdale 3-0 at 126. Pennsylvania’s other entry, Justin McCoy of Chestnut Ridge, fell 7-3 to a very dominant in neutral Brayton Lee of Brownburg, Ind.
New Jersey’s other entry, Robert Howard of Bergen Catholic, could well have beaten Patrick McKee of St. Michael-Albertville, Minnesota at 120, but McKee’s brilliant counter-attack style left him a 7-5 winner in an enjoyable, athletic, and back-and-forth bout.
Who’s No. 1 results
(at Grace Hall, Lehigh University)
113 pounds: Kurt McHenry (Md.) d. Malik Heinselman (Colo.), 8-7
120: Patrick McKee (Minn.) d. Robert Howard (Bergen Catholic), 7-5
170: Trent Hidlay (Mifflin County) p. Julian Ramirez (Blair), 6:24
152: Brayton Lee (Ind.) d. Justin McCoy (Chestnut Ridge), 7-3
126: Pat Glory (Delbarton) d. Gavin Teasdale (Jefferson-Morgan), 3-0
132: Joey Silva (Fla.) d. Roman Bravo-Young (Ariz.), 3-1 (OT)
138: Jacori Teemer (New York) d. Mitch Moore (Ohio), 4-2
160: David Carr (Ohio) d. Joe Lee (Ind.), 6-1
125 (women): Gracie Figueroa (Calif) d. Macey Kilty (Wisc.), 6-3 (freestyle)
195: Gavin Hoffman (Montoursville) d. Michael Beard (Malvern Prep), 7-6
138: Sammy Sasso (Nazareth) p. Anthony Artalona (Fla.), 3:50
Brad Wilson may be reached at bwilson@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @bradwsports. Find Lehigh Valley high school sports on Facebook.
