Alex Poore holds up four fingers as he celebrates his fourth state championship. Photo by Kenny Correll
LEWES — For only the second time since 1992, a tournament champion was recognized at the DIAA Individual Wrestling State Championships.
And for the second time in those two years Caravel Academy won the tournament points race with 247 points. The Bucs also crowned five individual champions Saturday night.
Caravel was followed by Cape Henlopen 184.5, Caesar Rodney 145, Delaware Military 128 and Smyrna 117.
The Bucs five titles was the most among all of the other teams and included four repeat champions. Freshman Eddie Radecki won the first title for Caravel, winning the 113 pound crown with an 8-1 decision over Julian Rapuano of Delcastle. It was Radecki’s second state championship.
Luke Poore won his third state championship at 126 pounds for the Bucs with an 11-0 major decision over Brandon Carr of Archmere.
Caravel later won three consecutive weight classes as John Antonio won the 152 title with a 5-1 decision over Milford’s Averi Copes, followed by Alex Poore at 152 pounds who won a 2-1 decision over C.J. Fritchman of Cape Henlopen at 160 pounds. Poore became just the 12th four time state champion in Delaware history.
“I had this goal since I first started wrestling, it was always to be a four time high school state champ and it feels good to finally get it done and move onto the next level,” Poore said.
Nick Hall capped off the Caravel run, winning his third state title with an 11-4 decision over Cape Henlopen’s Carson Kammerer.
Cape Henlopen crowned a pair of champions as Mikey Frederick won the 145 pound title with an 18-6 major decision over Jack Duffy of Tower Hill. The Vikings second champ came at 285 pounds when Lucas Ruppert won a 3-2 triple overtime victory over T.J. Burke of Indian River.
Smyrna’s Gabe Giampietro acknowledges the crowd at Cape Henlopen High School after winning his fourth state championship.
Photo by Tony Scarfo
For the first time in history two wrestlers won their fourth state title in the same year. Smyrna’s Gabe Giampietro shared that historical moment with Alex Poore on Saturday night. Giampietro won the 120 pound weight class with a pin over Milford’s Trevor Copes in 2:27.
Sussex Central crowned a champion as Malachi Stratton won a 12-4 major decision over Alex McEvoy of Caesar Rodney. Stratton follows his brother Rashad who was a two time state champion for the Golden Knights.
Jack Thode of Milford won his third state title at 132 pounds, pinning Caravel Academy’s Dylan Knight in 2:51. It was the third time the two met in the state finals match. Daniel Sinclair of Wm. Penn was a runner-up last year, but this year won his first title winning a 4-2 decision over Aaron Briscoe of Milford at 138 pounds.
Four time state finalist Justin Griffith of Sanford won his second state title in the night’s most anticipated finals match. Griffith scored a takedown in the closing seconds of the match for a 3-1 decision over defending state champion Josh Negron of Sussex Central. It was the finals’ only match up between two defending champions.
Salesianum junior Max Agresti won the 195 pound crown pinning Cape Henlopen’s Alex Taylor in 3:44 while Delaware Military crowned their first champ since 2018 as Tyler August avenged an early season loss to Dalton Deevey of Cape Henlopen winning the 220 pound title with a 3-1 decision.
The attendance for this year’s state championship was record setting as well. All three sessions were sold out and fans had to be turned away.
“I couldn’t hear, I couldn’t hear anything out there on the mat,” Wm Penn’s Daniel Sinclair said.
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