ALBANY — Rich Sisti set the bar even higher Saturday night.

The Monsignor Farrell senior, who last year became the first Staten Islander to ever win a state title, accomplished the feat again by going 4-0 in his matches the past two days at the 2014 State Federation Wrestling Championships — culminating with a 10-4 decision over Vin Feola (Walt Whitman HS) in Saturday’s 220-pound Division 1 final.

Monsignor Farrell's Rich Sisti repeated as state Federation champ at 220 pounds over the weekend. (Advance File Photo/Hilton Flores)

“It feels great,” said Sisti, the top seed in his weight class. “To be a two-time state champ is something most people don’t do in their lifetime. Last year might’ve been more exciting because it was new; this year, there was more pressure because I was almost expected to win.”

There was only one bump in the road for Sisti — that coming in the first round of the final match when Feola briefly had him pinned after Sisti was on top and seemingly in control.

“I was near the edge of the circle and (Feola) tried to come up, so I tried to keep him down and threw out my right hand,” said Sisti of the maveuver in which Feola cut his deficit to 3-2 before the Lion took command. “I did something stupid.”

“He tried to throw a right hand, something he usually never does,” said Lions co-coach Phil Squatrito of the brief moment when Sisti lost his balance and was in trouble. “For those two or three seconds, we were worried. But once he got out of that, we knew he wasn’t going to lose. He hasn’t gotten taken down since his sophomore year.”

Sisti began the tournament with a 6-0 win over Tyler Hudson (Whitesboro HS), followed by a 9-4 victory over James Bethel (Saugerties). In the semifinals, Sisti pinned John Hartnett (Tappan Zee) in 1 minute, 32 seconds.

Feola proved tougher. The muscle-laden Sisti commonly overpowers his opponent with superior upper-body strength; against Feola, Sisti opted to go with more lunges at the legs than usual. Those efforts paid off with several two-point takedowns.

“When you get to the state tourney, all the guys you’re wrestling are a full 220. They’re big kids,” said Squatrito. “Rich had to go to his technique and his skill more. Against these bigger guys, you attack they’re legs because they’re not used to that.”

“I was trying to use my technique and my agility and trying to work the angles,” Sisti said. “(On Friday), I wasn’t feeling great and my lower back was hurting. Today, I knew this was going to be the last time I was ever going to have with my coaches and teammates, so I wanted to raise my game.”

Sisti, who is currently ranked 11th in the nation at 220 by the recognized FLO Wrestling website, improved to 38-0 on the season.

“It’s hard to say he’s a ‘once in a lifetime’ kind of kid, but he could be,” said Squatrito. “Monsignor Farrell’s been around for a long time and he’s our first state champ. Now, we have to get more.”

Staten Island’s 12 other grapplers didn’t fare as well, combining for a total of two wins.

The Lions’ Karl Wiesner netted the only other Island victory in Division 1 (larger schools), going 1-2 in the 145-pound division. After losing 11-5 to Trevor Hoffmeir (Newark Valley) in his first match, Wiesner rebounded with a 5-0 win over Steven Kim (Cardozo) in his first wrestleback. The Farrell junior was then ousted by Tristan Broddus (Fayetteville Manlius), 8-6.

Fellow Farrell junior Mike Newman went 0-2 at 195, the same meet record turned in by the Tottenville pair of Joe Marino (99 pounds) and Nick Azen (126) and Curtis’ Malik Grant (106).

Petrides qualified seven for the Division 2 competition (smaller schools), but only Dolan McColgan at 113 registered a win. The Petrides senior topped Colin Hogan (Peru HS) by a 10-1 major decision, but then was pinned in 2:38 by Derek Spann (Adirondack) and was eliminated in the wrestlebacks by a 2-0 loss to Tanner Lapiene (Ogdensburg).

McColgan’s freshman brother, Kevin McColgan (106), along with teammates Kevin Velez 99), Joe Diforte (120), Nate Muse (138), Rob Welgoss (145) and Mike Esposito (182), all dropped their first two matches. 