Mt. Carmel’s Brendan Curran and Providence’s Justin Ruggio ran into each other a few times during the football season. Saturday, they squared off on the wrestling mat.
The battle of the 189-pound seniors was the highlight of the Catholic League championships Saturday at St. Rita with Curran a 7-4 winner. The victory, Curran’s 21st without a loss, earned him the meet’s outstanding wrestler award. It was his third Catholic League title.
“I knew he’d be tough coming in,” said Curran, a linebacker on the Caravan 5A state championship football team. “I just needed to go out there and be at my best. My conditioning helped me out in the end.”
Ruggio, a star tailback on Providence’s 5A runner-up team, was riding momentum from Thursday, when he handed Marist’s Brendan Heffernan his first loss of the year in a dual meet. Curran missed a meeting with Ruggio in last week’s Geneseo Invitational but was ready this time. He got a takedown at the end of the second period for a 2-1 lead and had two more takedowns in the final period.
“The takedown at the end of the second period was crucial,” said Curran, whose brother Andrew lost another battle of football stars to Providence’s Nick Passolano in the 160 finals. “I was up 2-1, going into the third period and I knew was going to get a point for an escape. I realized if I wrestled smart, I could win the match.”
Ruggio was one of 11 finalists for Providence and the Celtics won their second straight Catholic League title with 282 points to 173.5 for second-place Mt. Carmel. The Celtics picked up titles from Don Reynolds (103 pounds), Matt Kucala (112), Paul Augle (119), Sean Chinski (125), Mark Warren (130), Sean Nuetzmann (152) and Nick Passolano (160). Celtics coach Keith Healy was voted the Tony Lawless Award for coach of the year. Healy held out star 135-pounder Ryan Cumbee, who sustained a concussion in practice on Wednesday. Mt. Carmel was missing three regulars because of injury.
De La Salle’s Andy Bugajski won his third league title. Bugajski, who was second as a sophomore, was a 17-7 winner over Mt. Carmel’s Tom Treadway at 140 pounds. St. Laurence’s Joe Martinez ran his record to 24-0 with a 13-7 victory over Providence’s Nick Mancuso and was also voted winner of the Tony Lawless Award as outstanding senior wrestler.
