No. 31 seed Nicholas Campanelli pulls stunners at state wrestling
· Yahoo Sports
ATLANTIC CITY – A month ago, Nicholas Campanelli didn’t even know if he would be able to wrestle in the postseason. The St. Thomas Aquinas sophomore needed surgery to remove his gallbladder.
Mat prognosis: grim.
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“Finding out I might not be able to finish my season, I cried, man,” Campanelli said. “I cried so much and I knew if I got cleared to wrestle I was going to go out and leave everything I had out on the table.”
Doctors did eventually give the green light and he came back, a tad less than 100 percent mind you, and placed second in the district and fourth in the region to qualify for the state tournament.
He drew the No. 31 seed at 126 and faced Southern’s No. 2-seeded Anthony Mason in the first round on Thursday, March 12. Mason placed fourth in the state last season. Campanelli didn’t qualify as a freshman.
On paper, the match was all but a given, right? No. 31 seeds don’t win.
Remember, this is March Madness.
Campanelli pulled a stunner, pinning Mason off a scramble in 3:51 at Boardwalk Hall as the crowd roared. He then pinned Camden Catholic’s No. 15-seeded Lazarus Joyce in 3:06 after opening a 7-1 lead in the first period to reach the quarterfinals on Friday, March 13.
Cinderella lives.
“I knew there was no pressure on me,” Campanelli said. “I knew I was going to go out there and let it fly. I was just trying to keep it a close match. Show these people that I could hang with the best and I came out on top. Pinned him. Crowd went wild and I felt the energy, man, I knew I had to keep it going.”
Another way to put it, as Campanelli noted, “Coming in as the 31 seed, you got nothing to lose. Nothing to lose. Anyone I beat’s an upset.”
Campanelli, who carries a confidence about him despite being an underclassman, was in the midst of a promising season but said “after a hard, live practice my abdomen was in so much pain. I went to the hospital. They told me I got pancreatitis and went to other doctors. They found out it was my gallbladder and I needed immediate surgery.”
He wasn’t cleared until 11 days before the district tournament on Feb. 28. He gutted out some wins despite still hurting. Now, he's feeling much better despite some lingering pain.
St. Thomas Aquinas coach Luis Filipe said he’s not completely surprised with the upsets because he knows how good Campanelli has been all winter after going 36-6 as a freshman last season at Edison.
“He deserves what he’s getting right now,” Filipe said. “It’s not like it’s a fluke. It’s not like it shouldn’t happen. It should happen. He’s good enough to be doing what he’s doing right now and I hope this run just keeps going all the way through.”
Still, no one knew what to expect once Campanelli was cleared.
“It’s been a wild, bumpy road,” Filipe said. “Last week at the region tournament, he didn’t compete at his best. He was competing from the standpoint of let’s get through the region tournament to get to the state tournament so we can get that extra week to heal and then let it all out at the state tournament. That’s kind of what we’re getting now at this point.”
Win or lose, Campanelli said he's just thrilled to be able to put on the singlet for another few days.
“I didn’t think I was going to finish the season,” he said. “I’m just grateful to be here and wrestle.”
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ Wrestling St. Thomas Aquinas' Nicholas Campanelli