How good Saint Mark’s High used to be in wrestling had been a popular high school sports topic not long ago.

The Spartans continued to show Wednesday night that they’re once again quite adept in the present.

Wrestling longtime rival Salesianum for the first time in six years, Saint Mark’s scored a 42-30 win over the defending DIAA Division I champs in the Sals’ Birkenheuer Memorial Gym on Wednesday night.

The two hadn’t met on the mat in a dual meet for so long because of Saint Mark’s struggles, which included a Jan. 31, 2018, loss to Salesianum 71-9 in the last meeting as Saint Mark’s forfeited six of the 14 weight classes. That had been Sallies’ fifth straight win over its rivals, which followed a period of complete dominance by Saint Mark’s that began in the mid-1980s.

Under coach Cam Butler, Saint Mark’s made its first state dual-meet bracket in 10 seasons last year, falling to Caravel in the Division II semifinals. Wednesday’s win demonstrated the Spartans are clearly back among the state’s elite.

“It’s definitely a great step in the right direction,” said Butler, 25 and in his third year as coach. “Cam Davis and the rest of their coaching staff [at Salesianum] have a fantastic program, and it just shows how the resilience and hard work of our team has really paid off.

“Coming from having eight guys on the team two years ago to now beating the defending state champs is a big step.”

Restoration project

History hovers over Saint Mark’s wrestling program, but it had come to seem rather ancient.

The Spartans were coached by Steve Bastianelli from 1980-2003, winning 10 state team titles, and his nephew Jason Bastianelli from 2003-10, winning two more. A slew of individuals also won state titles during that spell and Saint Mark's teams and wrestlers were sometimes nationally ranked.

Butler was hired weeks before the start of the 2021-22 season as he was preparing to wrestle his final season at Clarion University in western Pennsylvania. Butler was a Maryland state champ at La Plata High who then wrestled for Clarion from 2016-21, but had a season of eligibility left.

“I was training for the Clarion Open, I’m old, I’m banged up, but I knew I always wanted to be a coach,” Butler said.

That information reached Saint Mark’s, which had sent several wrestlers to Clarion, including Delaware’s lone NCAA champ Sheldon Thomas. Butler was called into his coach’s office and told there was “an interesting opportunity” available.

A few weeks later he was the new Saint Mark’s wrestling coach. Butler entered a wrestling room with bare walls, the banners from previous Spartan exploits having been taken down.

Butler put them back up, he said, “so the kids could see they were part of something special.”

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Close, hotly contested match

Saint Mark’s won nine of the 14 bouts against Sallies, but several could have gone either way and had dramatic turnarounds.

The match started at 190 pounds. Saint Mark’s got a key 4-3 decision at 113 from Cliff Bakhsh and Aaron Menickella’s 4-2 overtime win over Dominic Lucian at 126 in a bout between two of the state’s top lightweights.

“Menickella came up huge,” Butler said. “He’s been doing nothing but get better ever since he’s been here and I knew he had it in him.”

Lucian, state champ at 106 last year, had won a recent tournament bout between the two, who have been club teammates and frequent practice partners.

At 132, Saint Mark’s Jack McDonald fell behind 6-0 but fought back and won with a pin at 132.

“That was a huge swing and built a lot of momentum,” Butler said.

Saint Mark’s closed the match with three straight pins by Brayden Ranauto (157), Vincent Hurst (165) and Jack Ebaugh (175) to erase a 30-24 deficit.

Before that Scott McKelvey (215) and Christopher Foster (138) won decisions for Saint Mark’s, with Foster prevailing 2-0, and the Spartans earned a forfeit at 190.

“It means a lot,” Menickella, a junior, said of winning the dual meet. “It’s the start of something new. When I first came here we lost most of our duals and we’ve progressed.”

Salesianum winners were James Miller, the Beast of the East 215-pound champ who moved up to heavyweight, Leo Marini (120), Matthew Copeland (144), who’d been down 6-2, and Gardner Hall (150) all by pin and the Sals earned a forfeit at 106. They are ranked No. 2 in the state behind Sussex Central in Division I.

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Dramatic turnaround

McDonald was a freshman first-time wrestler on the 2020-21 Saint Mark’s team that went 2-5 in duals in the COVID-shortened season.

“I fell in love with the sport,” he said.

That affection has grown in the last three years, he said, as Saint Mark’s has become more competitive while trying to regain some of its prestige.

“Coach Butler has been a huge inspiration to everybody,” McDonald said.

Two of his assistants are Frank McCue, who was head coach at nearby Avon Grove in Pennsylvania for 23 years, and John Testa, state heavyweight champ from Saint Mark’s in 1997 and ’98. Testa is a 2014 Delaware Sports Hall of Fame inductee who also wrestled at Clarion, becoming the third-winningest wrestler in school history, taking four PSAC and three Eastern Wrestling League titles and placing eighth at nationals as a senior.

“I’m just doing what’s been passed down to me and running the system that I’ve been taught and it’s been paying off,” said Butler, who teaches at H.B. du Pont Middle School. “I’m so blessed to have these kids.”

Testa decided to join the coaching staff when Butler was hired and help instill some of that former pride, sensing the Spartans had potential. He, therefore, understood as well as anyone the importance of Wednesday’s win.

“This was such a big match because we’re kind of on the up,” Testa said. “… It’s big for Saint Mark’s to win this because we’re trying to bring that legacy back.”

Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com and follow on Twitter @kevintresolini. Support local journalism by subscribing to delawareonline.com and our DE Game Day newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Saint Mark's downs rival Salesianum in wrestling