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The Caesar Rodney Riders never knew what hit them.

Hungry for revenge following a 31-20 regular-season loss to CR on Feb. 3, the Sussex Central High School wrestling team came out smoking in a much anticipated rematch in the semifinals of the Delaware state dual meet championships on Wednesday, Feb. 17, 1999.

The win over top-seeded and previously-undefeated CR put fourth-seeded Central in the Division I final, where it put up a valiant fight before losing to upstate powerhouse St. Mark's 30-21.

But the story of the evening was the semifinal upset of a CR team that has had Central's number for the better part of three years. Three Central wrestlers who were beaten in the regular-season meet notched victories Wednesday, putting the Knights over the top.

"It feels good let, me tell you. Coming in, I knew it was going to be a close bout and you've got to give our lightweights a lot of credit there," Central coach Phil Shultie said.

Central lost five of the first six weight classes in the Feb. 3 match but quickly let everyone know things would be different this time around.

After James Leyh (103) rallied from an 8-3 deficit to defeat Chris Parker 13-11 in the opening bout, Steve Swain (112) scored a technical fall over Mike Scaffedi, Joey Davis (119) downed Darnell Custis 7-4 and Corey Strohmeyer (125) gutted out a 13-11 victory over Nick Andrews. Suddenly trailing 14-0, the Riders never recovered.

Swain, Davis and Strohmeyer all lost their matches in the previous meeting with CR. Swain, who lost to Scaffedi 4-3 in their first meeting, was a different wrestler Wednesday, earning a technical fall after taking a 24-9 lead late in the third period.

"They really wanted this revenge match," Shultie said. "The first time they wrestled (CR) they felt they could have done a little better. After we lost to them they kept saying, 'We want a second shot.' And then when the wrestling committee put them one and put us four, someone was looking over us."

CR (14-1) momentarily stopped the bleeding when James Russial earned a 25-13 major decision over Central's Jordan Lowe at 130 and Dwayne Graham defeated Teddy Thompson 13-10 at 135. But Central's Anthony Andrews followed with a pin of Brian Palmer at 140 to give the Knights a commanding 20-7 lead.

The Riders closed the gap to 20-17 when Kyle Griffith whipped Raheim Brunskill 10-2 at 145 and Justin Palmer pinned Jason Riddle in the first period at 152. But they would get no closer, as Central took the next two matches to seal the victory.

Deon Brunskill (160) swung the momentum back in Central's favor with a third-period pin of Brian Rigby. Brunskill squeaked past Rigby 10-8 in their first meeting but dominated from start-to-finish in the rematch.

"I wanted to pin him because last time I had a close match with him," he said. "Last time I had an off match. I wanted the pin really bad."

Kurt Wolfe followed at 171 with a 16-1 technical fall over Tony Harris, giving Central an insurmountable 31-17 lead and whipping the team's fans into a frenzy.

Despite losses by Jake Booth (189) and Jerone Nocks (HWT) in the final two matches, the Knights earned a berth in the dual-meet finals for the first time since 1995.

"It feels so good. I love it," Deon Brunskill said. "We wanted it more. We worked hard for this and got a second shot ... and we knew what we had to do. We had to take advantage of it."

The final against St. Mark's, which edged William Penn 31-25 in the other semifinal, didn't produce the same electricity. The Spartans (10-3) won four of the first five matches to build an early lead and held on for the win. St. Mark's also defeated Central in the 1995 Division I dual meet final.

Things got interesting late, however, as the Knights (13-2) ripped off three straight wins to pull within 22-21 entering the 189-pound bout. But St. Mark's had a pair of aces in the hole in the form of Brian and Peter Santoro.

The brothers each moved up a weight class in the final and clinched the state title with wins in the last two bouts.

"We knew they were going to bump everybody up. The Santoro boys are tough," Shultie said. "That's why I wanted William Penn."

Brian Santoro, who usually wrestles at 171, defeated a scrappy Jake Booth 14-8 at 189 before Peter Santoro, usually a 189-pounder, earned a second-period technical fall over Jerone Nocks in the heavyweight match.

"I'm proud of the team, I thought they wrestled a great match," Shultie said. "I'm very pleased. Now we've got to go home and get ready for (the Henlopen Conference tournament) this weekend, and if we wrestle like we did tonight, we're going to surprise some people. Every one of them did a hell of a job for us tonight."

In the early bouts, Leyh defeated Michael Brady 4-1 at 103 to give Central an early lead but Swain was beaten by Eric Thomas 4-3 at 112 , Davis (119) lost to Andrew Donofrio 7-2, Strohmeyer (125) was pinned by Matt McConnell and Lowe (130) lost a 17-6 major decision to to Kyle Herbein.

Thompson (135) downed John Leyh 13-7 and Andrews (140) defeated Bill Murphy 8-2 to get the Knights within 16-9 but Shawn Willis (145) of St. Mark's pinned Raheim Brunskill in the second period to give the Spartans a commanding 22-9 advantage.

Riddle, however, sparked a Central comeback with an 11-10 victory over Geoff Ashton at 152. His takedown with seven seconds left clinched the win. Deon Brunskill followed with a tough 4-3 decision over Jeff Grieder at 160 and when Wolfe pinned Bill Melis at 171, the Knights trailed by only one point.