High School Sports

H.S. WRESTLING

June 18, 2008

Berwick’s Venditti heading to Penn State

By Dave Rosengrant drosengrant@timesleader.com
Sports Reporter

Penn State has a long winning tradition with its wrestling program.

The team finished this past season with a third-place showing at the NCAA Championships and had four grapplers reach All-American status.

So when Berwick grad Nick Venditti had the opportunity to join the wrestling program, he jumped on the opportunity like a leg exposed for a takedown.

“I’m very excited,” said Venditti, who was runner-up in the PIAA Class 2A Championships this past March. “It was my top choice and was definitely where I wanted to go.”

Venditti, who helped the Bulldogs to back-to-back District 2 Class 2A titles, wasn’t offered a scholarship by the Nittany Lions program because each Division I wrestling program only gets 9.1 scholarships per school year. But the 160-pound state runner-up was recruited by Nittany Lion head coach Troy Sunderland.

After meeting with Sunderland and going through the college selection process, Venditti was content. He was also considering offers from Drexel and Columbia.

“It was a tough call and my decision could have gone either way,” he said. “I just felt more comfortable at Penn State.”

Although the wrestling team is near the top every season, Venditti’s decision was based on academics. He finished in the top 10 percent of the graduating class at Berwick out of 210 graduates.

He will major in engineering at Penn State and will begin taking classes June 29 with six credits. All his classes at the university are scheduled around athletes’ practice schedules. So even though he is studying one of the toughest majors, academics will not be neglected.

“I was having second thoughts about wrestling in college because I didn’t want my grades to suffer,” he noted. “I will never miss practice or class, so it’s not like I can’t do it.”

Venditti, who will wrestle at 165 or 174 for Penn State, represents the Wyoming Valley Conference on the Nittany Lions squad along with Pittston Area grad John Laboranti, who will be entering his senior season.

The incoming recruiting class for the Nittany Lions doesn’t lack any standout wrestlers.

Quentin Wright, from Bald Eagle Area, won two consecutive PIAA Class 3A Championships and Ethan Virgili from Jefferson Morgan High School, was a two-time state placewinner in the Class 2A state tourney. They and Venditti were the notable recruits of the 10 recently announced by Sunderland and his coaching staff.

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