Ed Gigliotti ’70
Career Record: 43-8, District Champ, Regional Champ, State Medalist
Tournament Championships: Pat Reilly Invitational
1970 – 105 lbs.: (13-2)
1969 – 105 lbs.: District Champ, Regional Champ, State Semifinals (15-2)
1968 – 98 lbs.: District Runner-Up (15-4)
Lightweight star Ed Gigliotti was one of a record five state qualifiers on the mythical state championship team of 1969 and had one of the great back-and-forth rivalries in Lehigh Valley history with Mike O’Brien (Wilson).
Gigliotti broke into the lineup as a sophomore at 98 pounds, posting a win against Pennsbury in his varsity debut. Three matches into his career, he took on fellow star sophomore Mike O’Brien (Wilson) and beat up the Warriors star with a 6-2 win. Gigliotti won his first four bouts to head into the Reilly Invitational undefeated. There, he beat Anthony Mangeroni (Bound Brook) to win a championship. He tasted defeat for the first time against New Jersey state champion Bob Jiorle (Phillipsburg), who shut him out 4-0, then he lost a one-takedown match to D11 champ Stan Benton (William Allen) and fell to PCIAA champ and future NCAA champ Tom Sculley (Bethlehem Catholic). He got back on track with a pair of wins before the D11 tournament, and entered as the second seed. There, he rolled in his first three matches, earning a finals trip with a pin, and 4-0 and 9-3 wins. He had a rematch with Benton in his first D11 final, but fell to the Canary star 8-3.
As a junior, Gigliotti started the season at 105 with a 2-0 loss to former state champion Randy Biggs (Freedom). He missed the Reilly Invitational, but stormed back in January, going 8-0, including a win over New Jersey state champion Bob Jiorle (Phillipsburg) to give Easton early momentum in one of the legendary installments in the series. At the D11 tournament, Gigliotti was the second seed behind 1967 state champ Randy Biggs. He methodically made his way through the bracket, with 5-3, 4-2, and 6-2 decisions to make his first D11 final. There, Gigliotti and Biggs locked horns in one of the tensest D11 finals ever in the “only the winner advances” era of the tournament. The wrestlers were scoreless in regulation, then traded escapes in the overtime periods. The three referee’s conferred, and determined that Gigliotti was the aggressor throughout the match and awarded him the D11 title via referee’s decision, ending Biggs’s quest for a second state title. Gigliotti’s title was part of a record night for Easton, who crowned five champs and scored a tournament record 98 points, the all-time mark for the era before wrestlebacks. The following week, Gigliotti shined at Northeast Regionals. He opened with a 3-1 win over Nick Clemente (Wyoming Valley West) then took down District 4 champ Bruce Weaver (Shamokin) twice in a 5-2 win to kick off a perfect final round for the Red Rovers, as the first of five state qualifiers. In the state tournament, Gigliotti met undefeated WPIAL champ Rich Panella (New Castle) in the semifinals. Panella scored as time expired in the first period to take a 2-0 lead that would hold up for the rest of the match. Panella won the state championship later that afternoon.
As a senior, Gigliotti moved up to 112 pounds to start the year and went undefeated into holiday tournament season, where he made the cut to 105. He defeated returning D11 champ Mike O’Brien (Wilson) in the semifinals of the Reilly Invitational before falling to eventual state champ Dan Blakinger (Manheim Township) in the finals. Gigliotti met O’Brien again in Easton’s dual with Wilson, and once again knocked off the returning D11 champ, this time by a decisive 6-1 score. In January, disaster struck, Gigliotti and returning state champion Chico Lutes were involved in a car accident and both suffered injuries that kept them out of the virtually all of the remaining regular season matches. Gigliotti returned for Easton’s last dual to scrape by Robin Blum (William Allen) 2-0 to get more mat time before Districts. At the D11 tournament, Gigliotti won his opening match, but drew a third matchup with O’Brien in the quarterfinals. Both wrestlers traded escapes during regulation as well as overtime. Much like his 1969 title, the referee’s conferred after the deadlock overtime period to determine a winner. However, the clearly injured Gigliotti did not get the benefit of the doubt, and O’Brien was awarded a split decision to move on, and eventually won D11 and Northeast Regional titles.
History of Easton Wrestling 