When Sports Were Played: WPIAL title was one Hull of a moment for Big Macs
For today’s “When Sports Were Played” we revisit the WPIAL Class AAA Team Tournament championship wrestling match between Canon-McMillan and Kiski from Feb. 9, 2010. After several postponements, the match’s winner wasn’t decided until the final bout.
FOX CHAPEL – There were five long days, a winter storm that dropped about 20 inches of snow, and two postponements between the semifinals and finals of the WPIAL Team Tournament.
Michael Hull needed every second.
In one of the most dramatic events in Canon-McMillan wrestling history, Hull made his first appearance since slightly separating his left shoulder in an all-star football game 11 days ago and won a thrilling 3-2 decision over Steve Calderone to send the Big Macs past Kiski, 32-27, Tuesday in the Class AAA finals.
It is the first WPIAL wrestling championship for Canon-McMillan since 1995.
The victory also eliminated C-M from participating in a PIAA preliminary round dual meet against the City League (District 8) champion tonight at Carrick High School. As the District 7 champion, Canon-McMillan gets a bye and competes Friday at the Giant Center in Hershey. The Big Macs will face either Erie Prep, Shikellamy or Spring Grove.
It’s the Big Macs’ first trip to Hershey since the 2006 season.
“It was a tough decision but I wanted to do it for the team,” said Hull, a senior who is headed to Penn State on a football scholarship. “You don’t get a chance to win a WPIAL championship very often.”
No one was sure whether Hull would be able to wrestle. He didn’t get the OK until Tuesday afternoon.
“His dad made the call at 3 p.m.,” said Canon-McMillan’s Chris Mary, who has had teams in the semifinals in seven of his 10 years as head coach.
“I didn’t make any calls to his dad throughout the injury. I told Mike that I thought it would come down to heavyweight, but it’s your decision.”
Hull was improving each day. He could not have wrestled if the finals had been held Saturday, as originally scheduled.
“It was a day-to-day thing,” Mary said. “It kept getting better. He was at 75 percent, then it was 80 percent, then it was 85 percent. He loves to wrestle and he’s been doing it since he was 8. Unfortunately, injuries have kept him out of the lineup.”
The match had its bizarre moments. In the third period, with Hull holding a 3-2 lead, a scuffle broke out in the stands and officials had to rush across the corner of the mat to reach the seats and break it up.
“I saw it,” Hull said with a smile. “It didn’t bother me.”
Kiski head coach Chuck Tursky said he wasn’t sure whether Hull was going to wrestle until the dual meet got near the end.
“I thought it was a possibility,” said Tursky. “I was watching his body language. As the match went on, I could tell by that that he was going to wrestle.”
Hull, who weighed in at 215, was giving about 60 pounds to Calderone. Hull kept his distance and that led to a scoreless first period. Hull escaped three seconds into the second period and spun Calderone to the mat with eight seconds left for the key takedown and a 3-0 lead.
“He was pushing into my shoulder,” Hull said. “I just tried not to get stuck underneath.”
Calderone cut the score to 3-1 with an escape five seconds before the end of the second period and added another two seconds into the third. But that would be as close as Calderone would get.
“That first takedown was huge,” said Mary. “It turned the match.”
Hull’s win followed a crucial major decision by Cody Klempay at 215. Klempay turned Jordan Zito onto his back for three backpoints with 25 seconds left to make it a major.
Connor Schram also registered a key win at 112, stopping Colin Landowski 2-1 in double overtime. And William Pihiou rallied from a 3-2 deficit after two periods by pinning Jim Bistline in 4:17 to give C-M an 18-0 lead.
The Big Macs led 25-3 after Sam Lombardo’s 16-8 major decision over Zach Musco at 140.
Kiski would win the next five bouts to take a 27-25 lead after 189. Matt McCutcheon had a pin at 171 and Bill Emerick won by technical fall at 189.
“We knew we could win some down below,” Mary said. “We also knew we had Cody Klempay and Michael Hull to close out the match.”
And that’s what they did. Each Canon-McMillan wrestler had a chance to hold the WPIAL trophy and all posed for a team photo.
“You always dream about winning a WPIAL championship,” said Hull. “This feels awesome.”