Cardinals’ D’Alesio overcomes bad ankle

Photo

Anthony D’Alesio

By BRIAN DZENIS

bdzenis@vindy.com

COLUMBUS

The biggest struggle in Anthony D’Alesio’s 182-pound Division II state title match against Akron Coventry’s Austin Hinzman wasn’t his opponent.

D’Alesio struggled to pull off his hoodie after coming out of the tunnel Saturday night and he was dealing with a bum right ankle, but he had no trouble pulling off a 4-3 victory.

The Canfield junior injured himself during teammate Nick Crawford’s overtime win in the state semifinals on Friday.

“Nick won and I jumped up in the air and rolled it — look how swollen it is,” D’Alesio said. “Whoops.”

It wasn’t a repeat of their last bout — D’Alesio pinned Hinzman in the first period of the district finals — but the score doesn’t reflect how dominant the Cardinals’ junior was.

“I knew he was going to run away because he knows I can throw him, so those were all the stall points I got,” D’Alesio said. “[Coach Stephen Pitts] said to keep pushing and I kept pushing to get those points.”

On Saturday night it wasn’t clear what exactly was wrong with D’Alesio’s ankle, but it was noticeably swollen. Because of that he couldn’t get in the down position or hold top. Pitts said he wasn’t worried about the injury.

“We knew the adrenaline would kick in. We worked on it all day and by the time he warmed up, he was fine,” Pitts said. “The emotion was good and we were fine.”

Hinzman tried to start down in the second period, but D’Alesio let him stand up. He did this twice and a stalling call provided all of Hinzman’s points.

“Apparently it was my fault,” Crawford said. “He told me if he lost, it was my fault. I was like, ‘No, it ain’t.’ ”

Pitts ended up providing the assist of the night: pulling off D’Alesio’s hoodie that was stuck on his head.

“He’ll learn to unzip the zipper, but if that’s the only snafu we have , I’ll take it,” Pitts said.