By Bob Koshinski
ALBANY — To be known as the most successful wrestler in Niagara-Wheatfield’s long storied history is quite an honor, but Angelo Malvestuto knew it would take winning a state championship to put an exclamation point at the end of that sentence. The N-W senior won the 189-pound state title Saturday night at the Times Union Center in convincing style defeating Matt Loew of Wantagh high school of Section Eight 9-3.
For Malvestuto, this was his fourth consecutive trip to the elite state tournament, previously taking a fourth and two third-place finishes, but the Virginia Tech bound grappler focused all of his energy over the past year to being number one.
“The feeling of winning a state championship is as sweet as I had dreamed,” said Malvestuto. “This was my goal since l started high school wrestling and something my entire family helped me achieve. It’s a great way to finish my career as a Niagara-Wheatfield wrestler.”
Malvestuto barely broke a sweat in his first two matches Friday night pinning his first opponent in 1:18 and his second in 56 seconds. Then in Saturday morning’s semi-final match Malvestuto soundly defeated the physically imposing Brandon Contreras of Penfield 14-3 to advance to the championship match.
In Saturday night’s championship match, Malvestuto faced Loew, last year’s 189-pound second place finisher. “Matt is a two time All-American, a quality wrestler and a quality person. I’m happy with my performance against such a tough wrestler.”
Falcon Coach Rick Sweney was elated after the victory, discussing what it’s been like for him to sit in Angelo’s corner for the past six seasons.
“It has been an honor, a privilege really,” Sweney said. “I have never been associated with an athlete more dedicated, more focused. Angelo was almost always a guaranteed victory for the team and he has left a legacy that will be awful tough to top.”
Malvestuto is now Niagara-Wheatfield’s fourth New York state wrestling champion joining the late Frank Patterson (1964), Bob Sloand (1972) and Paul Cianchetti (1974).
Angelo Malvestuto finishes the season with a 48-0 record, 38 of which were by pin which is a school record. In fact, Malvestuto now owns the Wheatfield record book with 222 career victories.
Malvestuto’s younger brother Joe, a junior at Wheatfield, went 1-2 on the weekend finishing out of the medal round. Senior tri-captain Jim Donner, who took fifth place at 285 pounds last season, finished his decorated career at N-W by going 2-2 on the weekend and also missed out on a medal.
Senior 145 pounder Dominic Montesanti of Medina had a great weekend taking third place on the Division II side of the action. Montesanti defeated Tyler Button of Phoenix from the Syracuse Section Three area 4-2. Montesanti had easily advanced to the semi-finals with a pin and major decision on Friday night, but then dropped a 6-2 decision Saturday morning to Josh Manuel of Tioga in Section Four. Montesanti defeated Tyler Sirota of Canastota 9-4 in first consolation match to advance to the bout for third and fourth.
Other Section VI wrestlers claiming state championships on the night were Kyle Colling of Pioneer high school at 215 pounds, his second title, and in Division II Abdulgawi Mohamed of Lackawanna winning at 103 pounds and Colin Palmer from East Aurora at 189 pounds.
