Chris Lanciano has two true loves in life. One he can control. The other, well, it all depends on which way the current is flowing.
“When I’m not wrestling, I’m fishing,” the Hopewell Valley Central High School junior said. “That gets my mind away from wrestling and sometimes that’s a good thing. Being out on that open water, aww, yeah, it’s great. That’s what we live for. That and wrestling.”
He’s pretty good at both, but added that “I’m probably better at wrestling because I can definitely control the outcome in wrestling much more than fishing. Fishing is whatever mother nature throws at us.”
When he’s not hauling in a tuna or marlin off the shore of Ocean City, he’s putting an opponent on his back. Lanciano qualified for the NJSIAA state tournament last year by taking fourth in the Region 5 tournament; and carried a 24-1 record with 14 pins into this year’s regionals after winning his second straight District 18 title.
Fishing is not on his mind at the moment. Lanciano is more interested in what’s up the coastline from Ocean City, as the states are once again at Convention Hall in Atlantic City.
“It’s the only thing I think about anymore, is to get on that podium,” said Lanciano, who began regionals on Feb. 23. “It’s all I want. I saw what I did last season and in the offseason I was like ‘OK, time to go for it.’ The year before I worked out four nights a week. I do six now. I get up before school every day and do my push-ups; get a good workout in before school. Hopefully that will be push me through states and to the podium.”
Lanciano wrestled most of the year at 120 pounds but went into the districts at 113. He wrestled up to fill a needed weight for the Bulldogs, who had solid wrestlers at 106 and 113 during the regular season.
“There was no complaining from Lance that way,” coach Mario Harpel said. “He’s just a great kid and a solid wrestler. The thing with Lance is he wants to get better and every day he treats it that way. He’s really earned all the success he’s had and I feel there’s a lot of success in front of him.”
It was hard-earned success indeed. As a youth in East Amwell, Lanciano began wrestling with the Flemington Elks at age 6.
“Growing up in that program definitely put me apart from a lot of other kids,” he said. “Wrestling every day in the room with kids like (Hunterdon Central stud) Jack Bauer and guys like that gave me an insight to all the good talent out there, and showed me the level I needed to be at in order to succeed.”
Lanciano moved to Hopewell prior to eighth grade and promptly excelled at Timberlane. He went undefeated and won the Mercer County Tournament. That might have given him a false sense of security. As a Bulldogs freshman, he went 12-9 and had no tournament success.
“In middle school I never really got challenged,” he said. “I didn’t really know what I was going into with high school. I thought that what I did in the middle school to prepare for matches worked for me all season, so I thought that would carry over.”
Rather than sulk, he used the disappointment to fuel his sophomore season.
“It was beneficial for me to have that freshman year,” he said. “It showed me the level of talent that I had to reach for myself in the off-season; and showed me all the work I have to put in to get to states. I think that’s a big part of who I am now.”
Lanciano came back strong, finishing 29-6 with eight pins and winning the Mercer County Tournament at 106 pounds. He went up to 113 for the post-season and reached his goal of states, but lost both matches.
“He just kept working harder,” Harpel said. “There was always a huge upside to Lanciano, you really saw it from day one. Last year was a phenomenal year. This year he’s even better, he just continues to mature.”
Just as he learned from his failures, Lanciano did likewise from his successes. He understood that he won matches despite not cutting weight the correct way last season, which made things tougher in the postseason. As for going two and out in AC, he also found a bright spot.
“Being in that arena for three days and watching the best guys in the state and some of the best in the country was awesome,” he said. “It sucks I couldn’t compete more than two matches. But being there and knowing some guys don’t get there their whole careers; and knowing I could do that my sophomore year; and knowing that was my number one goal for that whole off-season, it felt really good.”
This year, Lanciano won his second consecutive Mercer County title and helped the Bulldogs to a record-tying 10th MCT team title. This was a year in which some teams felt they could get the Bulldogs.
“We put in more work than anyone in the entire county,” Lanciano said. “People may count us out at the beginning of the year but we know what we can do and we can back up anything we say. We’ve got great coaches, we’ve got tons of kids with a great work ethic. Even the kids behind the varsity wrestlers push us hard in practice. It’s just a culture we have.”
Guys like Lanciano set the pace with their dedication, attitude and talent. Harpel feels that Lanciano is still learning to be a strong technical wrestler, which could take him to the next level.
“He’s very aggressive, he competes really well,” the coach said. “Sometimes you gotta pull him back into the positional part of the sport. Position matters and he’s starting to understand that. There’s a lot of kids he can beat because he’s so competitive. But you have to clean up your position a little bit. You’re not gonna win 15-1 in state semifinal. You’re gonna win 2-1 or 1-0. Position will matter in that setting.”
Lanciano would love nothing better than to reach the podium at states, then sit on the family boat this summer reflecting on his accomplishment. And if he’s not on the ocean, Lanciano could be nestled somewhere in the Jersey woods.
“I got a couple good bass lakes around here that I hop around to in the summer time,” he said.
Care to share?
“Oh come on,” Lanciano said with a laugh. “You know how it works. The last thing I need is all your readers going to my lakes and taking my bass.”
Apparently, positioning counts in fishing as well.
Hopewell Valley’s Chris Lanciano (top) wrestles Patrick Kalnins of Cranford at home on Dec. 23, 2017. Lanciano won his match 13-3, but HoVal lost, 37-22. (Photo by Mike Schwartz/mikeschwartz.photo.),
