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Fox Lane alumnus Joey Grippi had an easy time of winning his first three matches at the New England Wrestling Association Championships. But that would change in the first final of the 133-pound weight class as Grippi was trailing by one point as the clock dipped below 15 seconds. The Springfield College junior kept his poise and secured a takedown to defeat John Donalski of Johnson and Wales, 6-5.
Grippi would then face Wesleyans Jim Schwartz and register an 11-2 major decision to win the 133-pound title and an automatic berth in the NCAA Division III Championships, which will be held Friday-Saturday, March 9-10 at the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse.
Grippi, who went 5-0 in the tournament, will be joined by teammate Derrick Longo, the 165-pound NEWA champion. This is Grippis third consecutive trip to the National Championships.
This means a lot to me, being able to go back to Nationals for a third straight year, said the 2009 Fox Lane graduate and twice a Section 1 Division I champion and state place finisher. Ive fallen short of my goal of becoming an all-American the previous times so hopefully this year is going to be different and we can all bring back some hardware.
Grippi, currently ranked eighth at 133 in the Brute National Wrestling Coaches Association Division III poll, was referring to him and teammates Ryan McGilravy and Longo.
The top seed going into the tournament, Grippi said he did not feel any pressure. Instead, he said seeds mean nothing because everything is decided on the mat.
We had a great couple of weeks of practice leading up to NEWAs and then the week of NEWAs we had a couple of hard practices, Grippi said. During the week I also focused on making weight and resting up.
Overall, I am pretty pleased with the way I wrestled. I had some tough matches, but I was able to pull them out and come out on top.
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