Sean Farrell , Staff Writer / Record Sports
ATLANTIC CITY – The seeds didn’t matter to Will Grater. Or Chris Caban, either. The two wrestlers behind perhaps the biggest Cinderella runs on Friday at Boardwalk Hall came to make a statement. The upsets they pulled off to reach the state quarterfinals came as a surprise to everyone but themselves. Both realized what they were capable of.
“I know I’m better than the 30th seed,” said Grater, of Queen of Peace.
“I knew everyone was doubting me,” said Caban, of Lodi. “But I wasn’t doubting myself. That’s all that matters.”
The Golden Griffins’ freshman and Rams’ senior, at opposite points of their careers, pulled off some late magic within minutes of each other to win second-round matches.
“[Caban] is very mature for his age,” Lodi coach Mark Maggio said. “Not many teenagers can bounce back after a tough loss [in the region tournament]. They’ll look at their bracket and see the two seed. I’m glad he didn’t. It’s just one match at a time. He’s just a special person.”
Caban has been one of the most dominant wrestlers in Lodi history, earning well over 100 career victories and capturing a number of tournament titles in his high school career. After four seasons, there was one spot missing on his record. Until Friday, he had never won a match in Atlantic City.
“I’m on cloud nine,” Caban said. “It’s my last year and I have a great chance of placing. That’s been a goal since the start of the season to get on the podium. It’s all coming together. It’s surreal. I can’t even put it into words.”
Caban set off a wild celebration on the Lodi sideline as the buzzer sounded on his Round of 16 victory. A reversal with about 20 seconds left gave him a one-point lead over No. 2 Michael Kelly of St. Peter’s Prep. Then the real battle began for the 15th-seeded wrestler.
“He was moving so much,” Caban said. “He was working as hard as possible to get out. I was just seeing in my head the image of getting my hand raised and I couldn’t let go. It was unreal.”
Caban hung on for a 6-5 decision.
“I’m at a loss for words,” Maggio said. “I was just so happy to see the look on his face that he did it. Probably a lot of people wrote him off after the district loss to [Connor] O’Neil, after the region loss to [Jacob] Falleni. To come down here and do that on the biggest stage is incredible.”
Grater also made the most of his opportunity, after being the fourth-place finisher out of Region 3. His two points just before the buzzer completed a back-and-forth 4-3 win over Kingsway’s McKenzie Bell in the Round of 16.
“He’s just a clear-minded kid,” Queen of Peace coach Scot Weaver said. “I don’t think he projects himself or sees himself [a certain way] in a certain tournament. He just goes out and wrestles. He’s a great scrambler and he never stops wrestling. That was to his advantage in the two matches tonight.”
The even-keeled Grater was at ease in his debut under the bright lights in Atlantic City. In his tournament debut, he knocked off third-ranked Chase Mullarkey of Holy Cross by a 5-4 margin.
“I’ve been doing this for 28 years and never do I recall someone coming from that deep of a seed to become a state quarterfinalist,” Weaver said.
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