By Bob Badders - Senior Staff Writer ATLANTIC CITY -- The wrestling room inside Howell High School has only one name under the "State Champions" headline, and that came 33 years ago. Rebels senior Joey Langel is more than happy to report that the banner needs to be updated.
With a 6-2 decision over Ocean's Mike Berardesco, Langel captured the 112-pound state championship at the NJSIAA Individual Wrestling Tournament on Sunday at Boardwalk Hall. Langel finished his career with 128 wins, second on the school's all-time list, and the school's first state title since Carlos Fontanez' 136-pound championship in 1965 when Howell was named East Freehold High School.
"It feels good but I don't think it's sunk in yet," Langel said. "When it does it's going to be great. It's great to know that I'm going down in school history."
"It's an unbelievable feeling," said Rebels head coach and former Howell wrestler John Gagliano. "It's been such a long time and it's great for the school, the town, the program and of course Joey."
In Berardesco, Langel had an opponent that was on fire in the tournament and also one that he was very familiar with. Langel knew the key would be to score early and avoid the dangerous tilt of the Spartans senior.
"I was just trying to stay clear from the tilt and do what I usually do by not staying down long," Langel said.
Two takedowns helped Langel build a 4-2 lead, and he added another takedown in the closing seconds for the state title.
"It's great to see that clock go down, it can't go fast enough when you're out there," Langel said. "To see those final seconds tick off and realize I just won a state title felt awesome."
Heading into the season, Langel had not won a Region VI title and had not placed among the top eight in the state tournament. Still, he felt he had a good shot to make a deep run in his weight class and became even more confident after defeating Queen of Peace's Frank Cagnina, the defending champ at 103, in the New Jersey Wrestling Coaches Association All-Star Invitational.
"I always thought I could do it but after the Cagnina match is when I really thought I could go all the way," Langel said.
Once he beat Cagnina, he immediatley became the favorite to win the championship, even though he did not have the a region championship or state medal under his belt. The bullseye on his back did not seem to effect him, however.
"I tried not to worry about who the favorites were and just wrestle my matches one by one," Langel said.
Heading into this season, Howell had 18 state place-winners since Fontanez won in 1965. Four had reached the final, but were unable to bring home a state crown. Thanks to Langel, one of the Shore's top programs now has another state champion.
"We lacked a state champion all these years and every time we came down we always had our mind on breaking the drought," Gagliano said. "In 2008, we've finally done it."
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