DCC 'Vikings' Dominate in D1 Repeat
February 24, 2018
By Butch Harmon
Special for Second Half
KALAMAZOO – They are called the Shamrocks, but for this wrestling season a more appropriate nickname would be Vikings.
The Detroit Catholic Central wrestling team not only won the Division 1 team championship this season, it dominated everything that got in its way in the state of Michigan.
Catholic Central’s final hurdle came in the Division 1 team championship match, a 57 to -1 win over Brighton, which had one point deducted early in the match for unsportsmanlike conduct.
The victory against Brighton capped a three-match blitz through Finals weekend by a combined score of 173-5 over the two-day event.
If that sounds like something out of Viking lore, that is exactly what the Shamrocks planned.
“Well, our team motto in the tourney is `burn it down, burn the boats,’” said Catholic Central junior Joe Urso. “Like they say on the TV show ‘The Vikings,’ ‘burn their boats.’ We came into this tournament looking to burn it down.”
That was exactly what a group of Shamrocks were chanting after the final match of the dual clinched a second consecutive title, the sixth Division 1 team title in the past nine years for Catholic Central.
“It’s a great feeling,” said Catholic Central junior Kevon Davenport. “We came out and from one through 14 everyone did a great job. We have great team unity, and that is one of our strong points. We have fun, and we like each other like brothers.”
Davenport was one of three Catholic Central wrestlers who recorded pins in the Final. Joshua Edmond (135 pounds) and Aidan Wagh (171) joined Davenport (145) with falls.
A pair of Shamrocks added five team points apiece with technical falls: senior Benyamin Kamali and junior Cameron Amine, a pair of two-time individual champions, won at 119 and 160 pounds, respectively.
“This is unbelievable,” said Kamali, “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Kamali points to the team’s work ethic as a key to producing those impressive results.
“We are the hardest-working team in the state,” Kamali said. “Nobody in the state works as hard as we do. We also have the best coaches in the country.”
Catholic Central coach Mitch Hancock has led the Shamrocks (29-1) to their six titles since 2010. Along with hard work, Hancock believes in testing his team against the best competition he can find.
“I believe iron sharpens iron,” Hancock said. “The common equation of all this year’s champions (Lowell, Dundee and Hudson as well) is the teams all put together such difficult schedules. We wrestled Lowell a few weeks ago, and we also wrestled Dundee and Hudson.”
Catholic Central’s lone loss this season came against Lakewood (Ohio) St. Edward, ranked No. 8 nationally by one publication.
“We have been undefeated in Michigan the last two years,” Hancock said. “We have a great group of coaches who know how to lead young men. We also have great parents and great support from our school’s administration. We also have a great group of young men who focus on the team.”
Catholic Central received major decisions from Easton Turner (215) and Steven Kolcheff (285), who started the dual with four-point victories to put the Shamrocks up 8-0.
Brighton (33-4) put up several strong efforts, but came up just short in six matches that ended in decisions. At 189 pounds, Catholic Central’s Rory Cox edged Brighton’s Greyson Stevens 3-1 in overtime. At 130 pounds, Catholic senior Stone Moscovic edged Brighton’s Zach Johnson 3-2. The Shamrocks’ Devon Johnsen (112) and Dominick Lomazzo (125) both won 3-1 decisions over Ben Manly and Eddie Homrock, respectively. Also picking up wins by decision for Catholic Central were Daniel Rehfeldt (103), Derek Gilcher (140) and Urso (152).
“This was pretty special,” Moscovic said. “Last year was a big moment because we lost in the Quarterfinals my sophomore year. We just came in with a mission this year. This team is like one big family. Each of our teammates is like a brother. Our team is more of a brotherhood.”
Click for full results of the weekend’s Division 1 matches.
PHOTOS: (Top) Detroit Catholic Central’s Dominick Lomazzo celebrates his win at 125 pounds. (Middle) Brighton’s Luke Stanton and DCC’s Easton Turner lock up at 215 pounds. (Click for more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)
Imlay City's D'Ambrosio: Calm, Cool & Contending for School's 1st Mat Championship
By
Paul Costanzo
Special for MHSAA.com
February 7, 2024
Dominic D’Ambrosio’s answer when asked at 5 years old if he wanted to start wrestling was probably a clue for what was to come.
“I remember when my dad asked me if I wanted to wrestle,” D’Ambrosio said. “I think I just said, ‘Sure.’”
It’s not that D’Ambrosio would be nonchalant or aloof when it came to wrestling. He’s quite the opposite, actually. The work he’s put in has him unbeaten at 43-0 as a senior, ranked among the top four at 138 pounds in Division 3, and threatening to become the Spartans’ first Individual Finals champion.
The clue was that D’Ambrosio was going to be calm and cool on the mat, and have a grounded view of the sport off it, which has also helped him reach those heights.
“When I was younger, I got an award for being a cool cucumber – the Cool as a Cucumber award,” he said. “When I lose, I just look at it as I can get better from it. At the end of the day, it’s just a game. It’s serious, the work you put into it, but it’s not so serious. If you lose, you just want to get better. I just like to get the work done.”
To be fair, D’Ambrosio doesn’t do much losing.
He’s dropped just nine matches during his four-year career, compared to 159 wins, and a third of those losses came against Dundee four-time Finals champion Braeden Davis, who is now unbeaten and ranked No. 5 in the country at 125 pounds as a true freshman at Penn State.
D’Ambrosio was 14-0 as a freshman when COVID-19 ended the Spartans’ 2020-21 season short of the postseason. He placed third at the Finals as a sophomore, and fifth as a junior.
He has his eyes on the ultimate prize this year, and for a moment he allowed the thought to get him out of his even-keeled nature. But even that doesn’t last long.
“It would be pretty special,” he said. “I’ve been working hard for it. But, either way, I’m just going to go and leave it all out there.”
D’Ambrosio is the son of Imlay City coach Tony D’Ambrosio, which in some cases could create more pressure. But not this one. And a lot of that could be credited to Tony.
“We always tried to keep the pressure low and just have fun,” said Tony D’Ambrosio, who is in his 10th year at the helm in Imlay City. “We just focus on getting better. He’s always just wrestled. It’s just how he is. Dominic doesn’t even look at the brackets. He doesn’t find out who he’s wrestling until he shakes hands.”
What happens after they shake hands isn’t what one would expect from someone who could win that same Cool as a Cucumber award every year.
D’Ambrosio’s matches typically don’t last long. Of his 159 wins, 105 have come by pin, including all three of his wins at the 2023 Individual Finals. As a junior, he set the school pin record at 41. This season, 32 of his 43 wins have been by pinfall.
Just four of his matches have gone beyond the first period this season, and only two of those have gone the distance.
“This year, he’s really been turning it all on,” Tony D’Ambrosio said. “He didn’t start pinning a lot until later on into middle school and high school. It’s just basic stuff, not anything fancy. He’s a nice kid, but when he’s on the mat, he’s going to turn you over.”
Dominic isn’t a thrower, and his pins aren’t the result of catching an opponent in anything fluky. He’s just meticulous, and able to take advantage of any opening he’s given.
“I’m (working on a half Nelson) 100 times, 200 times during the week, so I’ll be able to hit it during the weekend,” he said. “If I got somebody’s head, nobody is getting out of it. I can just flow really well into a pinning sequence.”
As he pins his way through the season, D’Ambrosio is racking up awards. He’s been named Most Valuable Wrestler at four tournaments bouncing between 138 and 144, and at one point found himself ranked No. 1 by Michigan Grappler at 138.
As you would expect, he hasn’t allowed that to get to his head, and as his father puts it, “the only ranking that matters is the podium.”
With District tournaments this week, D’Ambrosio now can focus 100 percent of his efforts on getting to the top of that podium. But don’t expect the pressure to mount in his house or on the mat.
“It would be special,” Tony D’Ambrosio said. “But, again, as long as he goes out there and just does what he does, and does his best – it’s kind of like the NCAAs, you have to have a good weekend. It doesn’t dictate who you are. It would be awesome, and it’s a great goal to have. It would be a great goal to accomplish and be the first (from Imlay City). But wherever he ends up, I’m going to be proud of what he’s done.”
Paul Costanzo served as a sportswriter at The Port Huron Times Herald from 2006-15, including three years as lead sportswriter, and prior to that as sports editor at the Hillsdale Daily News from 2005-06. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Sanilac, Huron, Tuscola, Saginaw, Bay, Arenac, Midland and Gladwin counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Imlay City’s Dominic D’Ambrosio, right, wrestles to a fifth-place finish at 132 pounds in Division 3 last season at Ford Field. (Middle) D’Ambrosio, right, takes to the mat during his early years in the sport. (Below) D’Ambrosio, right, works to pin an opponent. (Top photo by High School Sports Scene; other photos courtesy of the D’Ambrosio family.)