A half point. That's all that separated the East Providence High School wrestling team and history last Saturday night in the RIIL State Championship Meet held for the first time in its new home of CCRI-Lincoln.

The Townies, Bishop Hendricken and Cranston West jousted all evening for the top spot.

In the end, it was the unbeaten Falcons who claimed the crown.

Cranston West's Anthony Ferrar survived his match at 215 pounds over Warwick's Tim Cing-Mars, 5-3, to gain the four points the Falcons needed to slip ahead of the Townies.

West won the title with 168.5 points. East Providence, which last won the state championship in 1956, settled for second with 168. Hendricken was third with 164.5.

"The kids wrestled great. They left it all out there. A half a point short, that's the way it goes in wrestling," said E.P. coach Tom Galligan. "The last half-dozen years or so we've been in the top three or four. We just have tough kids that work hard. It works out for us."

Three Townies — Stacey Weeden, Bobby Blakely and Joshua Harrison-Lombardi — earned individual state titles along the way. Richard Dellefemine (160 pounds) and Steve Gomes (215) joined their mates as New England Meet qualifiers with third-place results.

"Just keep working hard and go to New Englands. We'll just keep working on what has made us successful and go from there," said Galligan. "They have just as good a shot as anybody. They're tough kids. They know how to wrestle. They'll do well when they get there."

The final round began with the Hawks leading the points chase with 154.5. Cranston West was second and E.P. third.

Hendricken, however, went just 1-3 in championship matches to fall out of contention. That left the Townies and Falcons in the mix, and both sides began crunching the numbers hard after Weeden won his title bout at 130 over South Kingstown's Cory Egan, 10-3.

Minutes later, Blakely won his championship match at 145 over West Warwick's Kyle Gadoury, 5-0.

Hendricken's last gasp came at 152 where Cory Pelletier pinned West's Victor Guerrero in 2 minutes, 39 seconds. The win also kept the Townies alive.

The onus fell on Lombardi, who entered the 171 final against Ponaganset's Wayne Tetrault unbeaten on the year at 38-0. Lombardi got all he could ask for from Tetrault, needing a late escape and a take down to win 4-2.

"There was a lot of pressure coming into the match. Coaches told me just to wrestle my match. That's all I had to do," said Lombardi.

Lombardi's slim victory gave West hope in the 215 match. Ferrar had control of the action throughout, leading 4-0 before Cing-Mars made a desperate late surge to make thing interesting as time expired. Ferrar's four points vaulted the Falcons ahead E.P. by the half-point margin.

"I thought if they wrestled well, we had a chance. Like I always tell them, anything can happen," said Galligan. "Coach Sal (E.P. assistant Glen Salguiero) looks at (the numbers) more than I do. I just wanted the kids to wrestle to their potential and they did. You know what? We almost made it. We'll be back again next year."

By Mike Rego

mrego@eastbaynewspapers.com