Gerry Gramaglia said that he started boxing this year to get into shape and to have some new challenges.
This season he got that and more when he beat Chris Williams of Lock Haven Saturday night to become the Northeast Regional Champion at 190.
Gramaglia and four of his teammates won Saturday night to become Northeast Regional Champions in their weight divisions, and will travel to Colorado Springs, Colo. for the national championships. Representing Penn State will be Ben Ladrido at 125, Walter Blake at 132, Paul Maginnis at 156, Jim Ustynoski at 172 and Gramaglia at 190. This is the largest number of boxers that Penn State has ever sent for the national championships.
Gramaglia, who looks more like a defensive tackle than a boxer, charged out for the first round and didn’t hesitate to show Mike Lyons of Lock Haven that he was ready to fight. Gramaglia dominated the first round, both boxers staying nose to nose while they punched. In the second round it became obvious that both boxers tired from the first round exchange. By the end of the third round, the average was about one punch every 30 seconds, but each one counted. Gramaglia had an energy burst at the end of the third round and threw enough shots to win the bout and the championship.
Walter Blake danced around Joe Sowers of United States Military Academy, taunting him as if he knew he had the bout won in the second round. It wasn’t an offensive bout for Blake, but it was enough to win him the bout and the regionals.
“(Blake) is an incredible boxer,” said Coach Bill Wrable. “He’s doing great, but he needs to do more punching and less of the other stuff.”
Blake said that he had no doubt that he’d win the bout, and that he worked too hard to blow it. Blake said that he wasn’t very enthusiastic coming into the day, but seeing Kevin Cull’s bout truely inspired him.
“I was feeling really flat today, until I saw Kev (Cull),” said Blake. “He boxed two days in a row, the second bout with a broken nose, seeing what he gave really picked me up.”
Cull was hitting so hard Friday night that he knocked his opponent into the aisles, literally. In a hard-hitting volley against the ropes with Turso Valls of Lock Haven, Cull gave one hard shot to the face of Valls that knocked him through the ropes and down to the floor. Valls continued the bout, but was unable to break Cull’s momentum. However, he did manage to break Cull’s nose with a headbutt.
Saturday, in the finals, Cull’s nose began to bleed early in the first round, but he still hit hard. Many times referee John Christopher stopped the bout to check to make sure Cull hadn’t lost too much blood. He still put out an incredible effort, and kept the bout extremely close. In the end the decision went against the blood-covered Cull.
There’s a lot of things that a person can do while he is being hugged, but boxing is not one of them. Frustrated, Seth Lyter tried jabbing a few shots at Williams while he was being squeezed like a roll of Charmin. Lyter put up a good bout, but lost because he couldn’t gain the points by punching that Williams did by hugging.
The third round for Ustynoski was as close to a two-hit round that he could get. Ustynoski came out and hit Greg Leland of USMA, then Leland hit the floor. The referee then stopped the bout, giving Ustynoski the win. Ustynoski advanced to finals, and became the champion by a walkover. Maginnis also advanced to the national championships by way of walkover.
Ladrido seemed to start out fighting a defensive bout against Dave Machamer of Lock Haven, but broke out of that with a solid flurry of punches at the end of the round. From the second round on Ladrido had the bout well in hand.
The boxers will be leaving for the national championships in Colorado Springs on April 1, and will be returning April 6.
“It seems that the higher intensity workouts paid off,” Wrable said, “and they’ll be even harder between now and nationals.”