VIDEO: DiMuzio sets win record, Cardinal grapplers fall to Pottsgrove, 38-31

One day, Nick DiMuzio will look back at the moment he stood at the middle of a wrestling mat at Upper Dublin high school, on senior night, and had his hand raised for the 108^th time in his high school career. He’ll fully realize then the importance of the moment: the culmination of 108 fallen opponents, the years of hard work and big dreams, the countless practices, camps, takedowns, laps, setbacks and victories that led to him becoming the all time win leader in Upper Dublin wrestling.

 He’ll recall, even more importantly, the sight of friends, family, and fans rising to their feet with applause in the stands, the feeling of the high fives and shook hands and pat on the backs from his teammates and coaches, and the sound of the official announcement of his achievement over the gym loudspeaker.

But for now, there’s this little thing called “states” that has DiMuzio preoccupied.

“Make it to states, that’s been my goal through my whole high school career,” DiMuzio said after the match. “I always watched it before, in middle school we would always go up [to the state competition] as a family so it’s always been my dream to make it there…and maybe place.”

Now that the regular dual season has ended for the Cardinals with Friday night’s 38-31 loss to Pottsgrove, it’s no surprise that the state tournament, and the long road through sectional, district, and regional tournaments that one must conquer to get there, is on the minds of the grapplers.

Head coach David Jones has a lot of optimism for the squad and DiMuzio, and likes their chances of getting a number of wrestlers through next week’s sectional tournament.

“We’re just going to go hard the next couple of days… through Thursday we’ll go hard and then Friday taper off and then take the guys up and see what happens,” Jones said. “Sectionals are a different animal, we got teams in there that we don’t see during the year and so we’ll try to do the best we can and go as hard as we can.”

And his thoughts on DiMuzio and his achievements?

“Nick can go far if he works hard-- [we need to] get a good tournament in sectionals and try to get in the regional tournament, then anything can happen,” Jones said. “He deserved it and he’s worked hard over the years… he’s a tough kid.”

Half a life’s worth of hard work? Check. All time win leader at Upper Dublin High School? Check.

State qualifier Nick DiMuzio?