Big day for Diekels: Wrestling family triumphs at Sectionals

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whitehall’s Diekel family turned Saturday’s Section II wrestling championships into their own day of celebration.

Senior Zach Diekel won his fifth straight title with three straight first-period pins.

His cousin, junior John Diekel, overcame a season-long illness and claimed his first Division II title after finishing as the runner-up the last two seasons.

Head coach Bob Diekel, John’s father, got to share the joy of seeing his son finally win a sectional title.

Assistant coach Paul Diekel, Zach’s father and a former sectional and state champion, was also honored for his lifetime contributions to Section II wrestling during the event at the Glens Falls Civic Center.

“Before this I could only imagine what my brother felt and what (Granville coach) Steve Palmer felt when they saw their sons win their titles,” a clearly emotional Bob Diekel said after his son pinned Albany Academy’s Cam Milliken with 46 seconds remaining in their 138-pound championship match. “This is unbelievable. I am happy for myself, and I am ecstatic for John. We have put a lot of miles on, traveling all over the state, and this season, every time we could, we had him wrestling the other team’s best kid. He had a couple losses, but we believe it made him better.”

After pinning Milliken, John Diekel was motionless on the mat and needed some time to drag himself up and onto his feet.

“I have been sick all year,” he said, explaining that he has had pleurisy, a painful abdominal infection. “It really restricts my breathing.”

In the last two seasons, he made the Section II finals, only to lose to Hudson Falls’ Noah Valastro, who was Saturday’s 126-pound champion.

“It was overdue, but that’s not what it’s all about,” Diekel said. “This is a stepping stone. The one in two weeks is the important one.”

Diekel’s new focus is the state Division II championships, which will be held Feb. 24 and 25 at the Times Union Center in Albany.

To get there, Diekel had to overcome what could have been a critical mistake at the start of the second period.

Diekel was leading, 2-0, and was in the top position. Thinking Milliken had committed a false start, Diekel let him go. Milliken got up, took Diekel down and was suddenly ahead, 3-2. Diekel was able to recover and was leading 5-4 when he pinned Milliken.

“I thought it was a caution,” Diekel said. “He kept wrestling, like he should. I relaxed, and I refocused.”

Bob Diekel said his son’s opponent deserved praise as well.

“Give Milliken a lot of credit,” he said. “He had a good plan. He knew John was sick, so he decided to be physical and to go hard as long as he could.”

Diekel got to his third straight final with a 9-2 win over Jay Oakes of Galway in the semifinals. His quarterfinal victory came with a technical fall over Zac Cooper of Cobleskill in 4:39. Milliken pinned Bryan Sherman of Hoosick Falls in the semifinals.

Whitehall’s third finalist, defending champion Al Aubin, was the victim of revenge when he was pinned at 1:33 of the first period by Corinth’s Zach Marcel. Last year, Aubin upset Marcel for the 120-pound sectional title.

“I was wrestling too conservatively, I think that’s what hurt,” said Aubin, who is still trying to recover from a concussion suffered in a match last month.”

Marcel, who won by decision over Aubin earlier in the season, said he was surprised at the pin.

“I came in ready to go six minutes with him,” Marcel said. “I have been training really hard. He tried to sit out, and I got under his chin and turned him and got the pin. I was shocked when I heard the pin called.”

Bob Diekel said he hoped Aubin would get an at-large bid to the state tournament. Those bids will come this week.

“Al has been wrestling really tough, but he’s very conservative, and he fell asleep on the bottom position,” Diekel said. “And that injury has really caused him a lot of problems.”

Nothing came easily for Aubin during the weekend.

He had to fight his way to the finals with a pair of close victories. Friday night, he edged Kody Bruno of Hudson Falls, 5-4, then edged Dan Jardine of Hadley Luzerne/Lake George, 5-3 in the semifinals.

Marcel moved into the final with a 14-6 victory over Ron Radley of Maple Hill. In the quarterfinals, he pinned Schoharie’s Kyle Brown in 4:39.

Diekel was also pleased with the performance of freshman 113-pounder Chad Amerio, who made his first sectional appearance. “I was really happy with him. He didn’t place, but it was a good experience for a freshman.”