Zengerle escapes with SuperSectionals victory
James Johnson
Democrat and Chronicle

(March 2, 2003) — BROCKPORT — J.P. Zengerle was in good shape.

The Gates Chili senior held a one-point lead in the finals of the 140-pound state wrestling tournament qualifier. He had a grip on Byron-Bergen’s Sam Herman and his first trip to states with less than 10 seconds remaining.

“I was really nervous,” Zengerle said. “I didn’t want anything to go wrong.”

For a moment, everything did go wrong when Herman threw Zengerle to the mat and nearly toward a disaster with five seconds to go.

Herman had the two points he needed until the referees reversed their ruling that the scoring took place inbounds. Zengerle avoided any more trouble and held on to win 6-5 before celebrating with his coaches on Saturday during the SuperSectionals at Brockport State.

“A lot of weight is lifted off my shoulders,” Zengerle said while wearing a 2003 state tournament T-shirt. “It’s been my goal forever.

“He was way out of bounds. It was pretty obvious I thought. Still, it’s pretty rare to see a ref wave off a call.”

Zengerle was that close to not becoming one of 15 wrestlers in Section V to qualify for the state tournament this Friday and Saturday at the Onondaga County War Memorial.

Spencerport’s Steve Stulpin made sure he qualified at 160 pounds with a 11-5 victory over McQuaid’s Andy Merkel. Stulpin was stunned to lose to Merkel during the Section V Class A final last week.

“I’ll trade last week for this week,” he said. “I was physically, mentally, emotionally... . I was ready to go overall.

“Last week was hard. Anything you win during the summer or off-season doesn’t mean anything. The tournaments that count are sectionals, supers and states.”

This year’s group of qualifiers will include six repeat overall Section V champions who wrestled in last season’s states: Canandaigua’s Kyle Ingraham and Trevor Chinn, Webster Schroeder’s Gregor Gillespie, East Rochester’s Pat VanThof, Hornell’s Cory Lawrence and Wayne’s Mike Patterson.

Spencerport’s Josh Fuller, Canandaigua’s Tom Cuppernell and McQuaid’s Andy Merkel also wrestled in the 2002 state tournament, but did not make it back this time.

An overflow crowd inside the Brockport State basketball gymnasium watched Chinn, a junior, earn his fourth trip to states after he won the 135-pound division. Marty King, a 1984 Canandaigua graduate, is the only five-time state qualifier in Section V history.

Chinn, owner of a 184-22 record, passed King on their school’s all-time wins list in January. He is two-time runner-up in the high school season-ending tournament in Syracuse. ‘’You try to build off of last year if you don’t get the end result that you want,’’ Chinn said.

Ditto for Brighton senior Gene Kobilansky, a 12-3 winner over Holley’s Andrew Grillo in the 125 final. How is this for peaking at the right time?

After finishing second at the Monroe County Tournament for the third time in his career last month, Kobilansky had a dramatic win during the Section V Class A finals a week ago.

E-mail address: jjohnson@DemocratandChronicle.com