BUTLER TWP — Santino Sloboda is an unusual wrestler, even by the sport’s standard.

He sometimes seems jittery, like he just wants to get to the next match. He’s a bit gumby — meaning he’s almost like a contortionist, able to get out of holds or move his body in ways other wrestlers can’t.

He’s also been singularly focused on one number for the majority of his life.

The Butler senior middleweight became the program’s winningest wrestler Saturday in his first match of the WPIAL Class 3A Northern Sectional tournament, fittingly reaching career win No. 161 in front of the home crowd at Butler High School.

Breaking Cole Baxter’s mark of 160 set in 2011 has been Sloboda’s top target for years, he said shortly after his historic win.

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“It felt good (to get the record),” Sloboda said. “When I was younger, I was probably in the third grade, second grade, talking about 160. I had some lofty goals, but it felt good to get it done.”

Sloboda said he was recently going through a scrapbook of his accomplishments and noted he’s mentioned seven times breaking Baxter’s record during media interviews over the years.

See? Singularly focused.

After two more wins Saturday, including a 17-2 technical fall over North Hills’ Brady Rohaly in the final, Sloboda is now 163-8 for his career. Only two wrestlers in Butler County history stand ahead of Sloboda in the record books: Seneca Valley’s Dylan Chappell has 164 wins, and Alejandro Herrera-Rondon has the all-time mark of 175.

“Cole Baxter was a leader for us for years,” Butler head coach Scott Stoner said. “And I didn’t know if anyone would catch or break his record. But obviously Santino being 163-8, win percentage is much better … truly a special, once-in-a-lifetime athlete coming through high school.”

Both former Raiders set the marks in 2021, and Sloboda trained at the same gym as Herrera-Rondon and looked up to him, he said.

The top seed in the 127-pound weight class entering his fourth and final postseason, Sloboda earned a first-round bye, dispatched Seneca Valley’s Morgan Temple by 22-5 technical fall in the quarterfinals and won all three bouts by tech fall.

“It didn’t really seem like it was possible all the time (when we were younger),” said best friend and classmate Sutton Stoner. “So being able to see him get that today, it’s huge, it’s really cool.”

But Sloboda will take it and turn his attention to other goals, one in particular.

He’s a two-time defending WPIAL champion. The only thing missing on his incredible resume, which earned him a scholarship offer a year ago at Pitt, is a state title. He won bronze last year in the PIAA Wrestling Championships in Hershey.

“Definitely state title’s the goal,” Sloboda said. “It’s been the one I couldn’t accomplish in my career so far (even at the youth level).”

Butler senior Sutton Stoner feels he should’ve reached this point years ago.

The 160-pounder claimed his first section title with an 8-1 decision over North Allegheny’s Gabe Hernandez, capping a 3-0 day that included another decision and a tech fall.

It came two years after a dislocated elbow cost him his sophomore season and still ate at him his junior year, when he struggled to find joy in the sport.

“It’s very bittersweet,” Stoner said.

“It’s really hard to beat the disappointment of feeling like I’m finally doing my best wrestling and it’s pretty much already over. I feel like I should’ve been at this point maybe my sophomore year.”

Stoner wants to qualify for the state regional tournament, maybe make states. It would give him an extra few weeks on the same mat with his dad and best friend Sloboda.

Scott Stoner said his son developed an ear infection earlier in the week and had an all-nighter before that studying for a test. He said Sutton wasn’t his sharpest but got the job done.

“I’m hoping he goes down and competes well and maybe sneaks onto the regional qualifier and maybe gets to the state tournament,” Scott Stoner said.

It’s easy for some of a section’s top wrestlers to let their foot off the gas a little, knowing they have such a clear advantage to get out of the first postseason weekend.

Zach Hill (145 pounds) doesn’t leave anything to chance. The senior, who recently hit 100 career wins, wrestled with urgency in all three matches as the top seed, earning technical falls in all of them.

“I knew I was definitely the best guy in this bracket, just try to stay aggressive and attack and score points, don’t even give them a chance to come at me,” Hill said before stepping on the podium to claim his gold.

He thumped Butler’s Dennis Brunton 21-2 in the quarterfinals and Kiski’s Ben Murphy 15-0 in the semis, both within two minutes. He finished the day with a 17-1 third-period tech fall on North Hills’ Paul Cerminaro.

Hill’s focused on his defense and “getting out on bottom” heading into WPIALs, where he’s hoping to win his first medal.

Related Article: Seneca Valley wrestling’s Zach Hill uses aggressive style to reach 100 wins

Plan A didn’t work for Seneca Valley’s Riley Smith. Plan B did.

The 107-pounder turned around a 3-0 deficit to beat North Allegheny’s Joey Synan 8-3 on two four-point nearfalls in the second period. Smith knew he couldn’t suffer too many takedowns but had an advantage from the top position and rode that in the second to a big win.

“I got two pins and a tough match against a kid that I’ve never beaten before. Went out and did what I had to do, got the win,” said Smith, whose goal is to make the PIAA Western Regionals in two weeks.

Mars freshman 139-pounder Olympic Serrao looks like the best young wrestler in the county already.

He started his first postseason reinforcing that, going 2-0 to win his weight class. He earned a win by medical forfeit in the quarterfinals, then beat Pine-Richland’s Max Kohser 7-0 and teched Shaler’s Jonah Cable 16-0 in the second period for gold.

“Wrestled good, both of them, and I felt confident both of them,” Serrao said of his debut.

“Just another day. First step of going to states, another day of wrestling.”

Serrao is confident he can win a WPIAL championship in his first year, a difficult feat for many young wrestlers. Canon-McMillan senior Collier Hartman will likely stand in the way and is someone Serrao is looking forward to facing.

“I just gotta keep wrestling how I wrestle, but I feel like I could definitely go on my offense more, pull more stuff out of my bag,” he said.

Related Article: Mars wrestler Olympic Serrao doesn’t look like a freshman on the mat and his goals are lofty

How Butler County wrestlers fared in medal rounds. All six medalists qualify for the district championships.

1st-place matches

107: Riley Smith (SV) dec. Joey Syndan (NA) 8-3

127: Santino Sloboda (But) tech. fall Brady Rohaly (NH) 17-2, 2:31

139: Olympic Serrao (M) tech. fall Jonah Cable (Sewickley) 16-0, 3:18

145: Zach Hill (SV) tech. fall Paul Cerminaro (NH) 17-1, 5:51

160: Sutton Stoner (But) dec. Gabe Hernandez (NA) 8-1

3rd-place matches

121: Nick Savannah (But) pinned Beckett Szczesniak (M) 2:26

133: Shay Krysinski (Central Catholic) major dec. Parker Joseph (M) 14-0

152: Dominic Roland (Kiski) pinned Dylan Thurber (But) 2:53

189: Nezumiiro Green (CC) pinned Liam Corcoran (M) 0:56

285: Tommy Wuycheck (SV) pinned Domenic Petruzzi (CC) 0:46

5th-place matches

107: Ben Kinney (But) dec. Sam Pelletier (NA) 9-4

127: Jay Carroll (Hampton) dec. Ben Goehring (M) 3-1

133: Shawn Murphy Jr. (NH) pinned Tyler Nguyen (SV) 0:36

145: Sam Passarelli (M) win by medical forfeit.

152: Mason Purvis (SV) lost by medical forfeit.

172: James Bidoli (SV) pinned Jackson Pacellio (CC) 4:09

215: Ace McElravy (But) lost by medical forfeit.