WPIAL wrestling: Santino Sloboda breaks Butler career wins record at 3A sectionals
BUTLER TWP — Santino Sloboda is an usual 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.
“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.
He’s 161-8 for his career now, with two more matches likely left Saturday. Only two wrestlers in Butler County history stand ahead of Sloboda now in the record books: Seneca Valley’s Dylan Chappell has 164 wins, and Alejandro Herrera-Rondon has the all-time mark of 175.
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 dispatched Seneca Valley’s Morgan Temple by 22-5 technical fall in the quarterfinals. Sloboda had a first-round bye.
Temple presented a tough challenge for Sloboda despite the score, making it difficult for the Butler senior to get a cradle at any point and end the match earlier by pin.
But Sloboda will take it and turn his attention to other goals, one in particular.
He’s the heavy favorite to win the section and is 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).”
This story will be updated with more coverage from the WPIAL sectional tournament later today.
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Butler’s Santino Sloboda poses with his team after breaking the school’s record with his 161st win in the WPIAL Boys Wrestling Class 3A Northern Sectional Tournament held Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026, at Butler High School. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Butler’s Santino Sloboda breaks the schools record with his 161st win against Seneca Valley’s Morgan Temple in a 127-pound bout in the WPIAL Boys Wrestling Class 3A Northern Sectional Tournament held Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026, at Butler High School. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Butler’s Santino Sloboda breaks the schools record with his 161st win against Seneca Valley’s Morgan Temple in a 127-pound bout in the WPIAL Boys Wrestling Class 3A Northern Sectional Tournament held Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026, at Butler High School. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Butler’s Santino Sloboda breaks the schools record with his 161st win against Seneca Valley’s Morgan Temple in a 127-pound bout in the WPIAL Boys Wrestling Class 3A Northern Sectional Tournament held Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026, at Butler High School. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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