Sports spotlight: Jake Castagnero

Matt Krombach
Sports Editor

Apex’s own Jake Castagnero won this year’s 4A Wrestling State Championship in a rather unusual fashion.  Castagnero won as his opponent tried to gain an advantage, thus resulting in a disqualification.

  

Castagnero at the Wrestling State Championship.

Castagnero, who has been wrestling since sixth grade, has received offers from Campbell University, UNC, and N.C. State.  “My mom read a flyer and asked me if I wanted to try [wrestling] and I said sure,” he said.  He also played catcher for Apex High’s baseball team throughout his four years, but prefers wrestling.  “Don’t get me wrong, baseball takes skill,” he stated, “but wrestling takes a lot of skill and work and I excelled at it more than baseball.”   

Castagnero appreciated how the coaches made his team earn every aspect of the mat.  “The coaches worked us extremely hard; there were times where we didn’t like our coaches,” he said.  “When we got compliments we knew we earned them, they weren’t given out lightly,” he added.

Castagnero put in more dedication and effort this year compared to previous years.  “I came back from an injury and had turf toe, so I went on the elliptical before actual practice for 20 to 30 minutes before actual practice,” he said.  Most of his support and his motivation came from his coaches and his mother.  His mother took over his middle school wrestling program and “always wanted him to do well.”

When asked about the current event of wrestling being removed from the Olympics Castagnero stated that, “I find it completely ridiculous.  There’s no way it should be taken out, it was one of the first three Olympic sports in Greece.”  

“I wasn’t overjoyed to win states,” he said.  “I didn’t want my hard work to go to waste.” During the match, Castagnero’s opponent tried to gain an advantage by illegally controlling the hand and what seemed to be an attempt to break his middle finger, which Castagnero had broken earlier in the season.  “I knew I could beat him,” he said, “he was only good at throws and his technique wasn’t as good as mine.”   Castagnero wishes things went differently concerning his match.  “I would rather have had the match been restarted,” he said.