Citrano makes impressive debut for Plum wrestling

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, December 14, 2018 | 8:06 PM

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Vinny Citrano said he felt a little nervous before his varsity wrestling debut at the Eastern Area Invitational Wrestling Tournament Dec. 7-8 at Gateway High School.

“But, still, I had to get in there and get the job done,” the Plum 106-pound freshman said.

“The coaches had faith in me to put me in that spot. I went after it, and it worked well.”

Citrano made the most of his opportunity, placing third at 106. He wasted no time making his mark in his first match as he recorded a 16-0 technical fall in 2 minutes, 48 seconds.

He went 4-1 at EAIWT with his only loss coming in the semifinals against highly-ranked Carter Dibert from Franklin Regional.

“I was really happy with how I wrestled,” Citrano said. “It’s just improvement from there and improvement each day. I am really excited to be where I am now. It comes down to putting everything together and doing my best. I know I have a lot of challenging matches coming up.”

Citrano followed up his EAIWT performance with a dominant pinfall victory in the Mustangs’ section opener Dec. 12 against Central Catholic. He racked up nearfall points to put him ahead 16-0 right before recording the pin at the 3:51 mark.

“Vinny’s goal in his high school career is to be a state champion,” Plum coach Steve Stremple said. “He’s got every wrestling attribute you can think of that gives him the ability to accomplish all his goals. He’s got the motor and the drive to do it. He’s always on the mat. He’s such a student of the sport and a true mat rat.”

Citrano’s start is just one of several positive points that has Stremple optimistic for this season. He said he likes the mix of veterans and younger talent in the lineup.

“Eastern Areas is a good tournament to start the year with,” he said. “There’s a lot of tough teams and tough wrestling going on. We’ve pushed a lot of these young guys in practice to get them ready for a tournament like this. Now, they’ve seen what they are up against, and it puts what we’re doing in practice in perspective. They understand why we do a lot of the things, a lot of the little things, in practice.”

Plum scored five pins and a pair of forfeit victories en route to its 42-30 win over Central Catholic.

Juniors Evan Stinson and Jarrod Citrano earned pins at 145 and 152, respectively, against the Vikings.

“We have a lot of new guys, young guys, but we did pretty well (against Central Catholic) and won the match,” Stinson said. “They are learning more and more each day, and we (veterans) are going to help them along the way as much as we can.”

Senior Colin Stecik also returns with a great deal of varsity experience. He placed fourth at 160 at last year’s Section 1-AAA tournament and qualified for WPIALs.

He won by forfeit at 160 against Central Catholic.

“Colin has developed into a great leader this year as a senior,” Stremple said. “Evan, with his Junior ROTC leadership, always is ready to lend a hand and lead the way. Jarrod, Colin and Evan really set the pace in the room. They drill match pace in the room which the younger guys see and benefit from.”

Freshmen Paul McClintock (113-120) and sophomore Dyllan Geraci (132) added wins by pin against the Vikings, and junior Damon Bracco won by forfeit at 170.

Stremple said he also is looking forward to the continued advancement of wrestlers such as freshmen Tanner Havens (126), Anthony Carlisano (138) and Willem Powell (120) and junior Rylan Cramer (138).

Michael Love is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Michael at mlove@tribweb.com or via Twitter @MLove_Trib.

Tags: Plum