Villa Angela-St. Joseph wrestling coach Bob Mullin had plenty to be proud of when he left Viking Village on Feb. 7.
VASJ hosted the 2015 North Coast League wrestling tournament at the newly refurbished gym, and the day went quite well both as the host school and on the mat during competition.
Joey Tromba became the first Viking to win a league championship in three years when he defeated Luke McKeon from Lake Catholic, 6-2, in the 132-pound championship match.
Daniel Cervenik (160) and Kevin Mullin (182) battled through the consolation bracket to take third place, respectively, at their weight class.
Mar-cel English received praise from Coach Mullin for wrestling well and competing extremely hard, but he did not place.
“It’s not easy to win a league title so you have to give Joey a lot of credit for that accomplishment,” Mullin said. “He and I have talked about how hard he needs to work at the end of the year to get out of the district and make it to state. It won’t be easy, but he is a talented kid and wrestling well.
“Danny really battled back in the consolation semis and then dominated (pin in 59 seconds) in the third/fourth place match. I was extremely proud of him, and proud of Kevin, who dropped a lot of weight and was drained, but earned a third. Overall, just pleased with our boys.”
Walsh Jesuit won the team title with 202 points, clearly outdistancing second place Lake Catholic (162).
VASJ finished seventh with 70 points, but considering the level of competition and the numbers for each team, Mullin was more than satisfied with the Vikings’ effort and the reception from other schools about VASJ serving as the host team.
“We finished about where I expected because we just don’t have the numbers to be a top 4 team, but I knew the talent we did have in the lineup was good enough to compete and not finish anywhere near the bottom,” Mullin said.
“I thought the day went very well. The gym looked great, things went smoothly, the courtesy room with the food was fantastic and a lot of coaches commented in a positive way.”
VASJ will again host the NCL Tournament next winter.
