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Muncy’s Barberio carries confidence into PIAA team tournament

MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Muncy’s Mario Barberio, right, wrestles Southern Columbia’s Mike Miner during a dual meet last month. Barberio enters the PIAA Team Wrestling Championships with a 28-6 record.

MILTON — It’s tough to find a moment when Mario Barberio isn’t smiling. The wrestling season has been nothing but fun for the Muncy junior.

It’s easy to see why that smile is so often strewn about Barberio’s face. He’s spent the season taking challenge after challenge head on, and for the most part, coming out on top.

He and his Muncy teammates will face some of their toughest challenges beginning today in the first round of the PIAA Team Wrestling Championships at the Giant Center in Hershey. It’s the second consecutive year the Indians are competing in the tournament. Last year they became the highest placing team in Lycoming County history, finishing fourth in the 21-team field.

Muncy opens this weekend’s tournament against District 11 champion Saucon Valley at 4 p.m. The matches can be streamed live at FloWrestling.org.

Barberio could run into a familiar foe this afternoon against Saucon Valley, who is coached by District 4 alum Chad Shirk. He wrestled Thomas Spirk at the season-opening Tom Best Memorial Top Hat Tournament, dropping a 10-3 decision. Barberio eventually finished fifth at 138 pounds, and Spirk won the championship.

But since then, Barberio has passed nearly every test he’s faced with flying colors. The junior even went as far as to record his 100th career victory during last weekend’s District 4 Duals tournament.

Barberio has had a lot to smile about.

“This year I’m not as nervous. I’m having fun with it,” Barberio said Saturday. “Last year I thought of myself as a practice room opponent who just wrestled well in the practice room. But I think I’m starting to get that out here onto the actual wrestling mat and I think it’s starting to show.”

Since finishing eighth at the King of the Mountain in mid-December, Barberio has won 19 of his last 20 bouts. His only loss in that stretch was to Emmaus’ Jackson Karrat at the Zephyr Duals in Whitehall, 3-1. Karrat is already a 23-match winner this season.

During that stretch, he’s defeated regionally-ranked Gabe Waltman of Central Columbia twice, regionally-ranked Devon Deem of Montgomery and Ian Coller of Line Mountain, state-ranked Mike Miner of Southern Columbia twice, state-ranked Luke Gorg of Hughesville, state qualifier Dominic DeFalco of Quakertown, and state placewinner Nate Higley of Sullivan County.

It’s as impressive a resume as anyone in District 4 can bring to the table this season. Barberio is still ranked just third in the Northeast Region at 138 pounds, and just 14th in the state. But it would be faulty to think his body of work hasn’t put him on the state’s radar.

After all, Barberio was just a victory away from qualifying for the state tournament a year ago when he won 43 matches and helped the Indians take fourth in the state team championships.

“Mario’s a great wrestler and a great athlete,” Muncy first-year coach Royce Eyer said. “It’s a matter of confidence right now and he seems to be wrestling real confident, and that’s how we want him coming into the postseason.”

The confidence is visible in the way Barberio wrestles. At times in his first two years, he seemed hesitant to get to his offense. That’s no longer the case.

He’s not afraid to fire off shots with a purpose. He works for back points with great conviction. He’s strong in his movements without a hint of passivity.

For a wrestler who thought of himself as a practice room wrestler a year ago, that couldn’t be further from the truth of who he is as a wrestler this year. He enters this weekend’s state tournament with a 28-6 record. Of his six losses, three have come to state-ranked wrestlers, and the other three have come to two wrestlers with a combined 48 wins.

“The coaches have been great. I think (Eyer) was able to get me to a new level,” Barberio said. “But I don’t want to peak too soon. I don’t want this to be my high. I want the postseason to be my high, which starts with district duals.”

Barberio got his postseason off to a good start last weekend when he defeated Waltman and Miner for the second time in about a month. Those wins came on the heels of a surprising fall over Gorg in a dual-meet in a bout he trailed 5-0 last month, and a one-point win over state sixth-place finisher Higley in a dual meet.

It was those caliber of wins which have shown Barberio just how different he is as a wrestler. Now the goal is to take what he’s learned from those wins and the momentum he’s gained and turn it into his first trip to the individual state tournament.

Each of his first two seasons have finished one win short of the state tournament wrestling at 113 pounds. Last year he dropped a 4-0 decision to Southern Columbia’s Patrick Edmondson, who went on to finish sixth in Hershey. As a freshman, he dropped a 7-2 decision to Bloomsburg’s Colby Bronzburg who advanced to the blood round at states.

The confidence Barberio carries with him this year could be the difference, though. He feels and acts like he belongs on that stage. After going 8-2 combined in the district and state team tournaments last year, he’s proven he can wrestle on the biggest stage. Now it’s just a matter of going out and doing it when it counts most.

“It’s all starting to come together this year,” Barberio said. “It boosts my confidence knowing I can achieve my goals at states. I believe these wins emphasizes that I can be a state quality wrestler and get on that podium this year.”

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