Wrestling: Piscataway’s Petite looks to continue magic
ATLANTIC CITY – He took the Region 5 tournament by storm a week ago and came into the NJSIAA Individual Wrestling Championships on Friday night at Boardwalk Hall looking to continue that same momentum.
Piscataway freshman Michael Petite won his prequarterfinal bout with a 7-5 decision over Kingsway’s Rory Bushby, but it wasn’t up to his standards.
“It felt good to come back for that win, but I shouldn’t have been down that early to that kind of opponent,” Petite said. “I should have been blowing him out. That was just a disappointing win for me. I felt like I could have done better.”
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After placing fifth at 160 in the Greater Middlesex Conference Championships, Petite came into the Region 5 tournament as a No. 9 seed and went on an unpredictable run on his way to the Region 5 title.
He’ll look to pull another Cinderella run this weekend, but knows it isn’t going to be easy.
“I think this is going to be a lot more difficult than the region tournament, but I could get up high on that podium I feel like in my opinion,” Petite said. “I could get high on that podium.”
Petite was one of just four GMC wrestlers to win in the prequarterfinals to advance to Saturday’s quarterfinals.
The GMC went 4-5 overall in the preliminary round on Friday night as Monroe’s Chris Muce (138), Woodbridge’s Bryan McLaughlin (152), J.F. Kennedy’s Brandon Farrell (170), and Old Bridge’s Mike Gargano all won their first bouts to advance to the prequarterfinals, though McLaughlin was the only one of the four to advance to the quarterfinals.
Gargano is particular won a tough preliminary bout, defeating Delbarton’s L.J. Castellano 1-0 in an ultimate tiebreaker.
“It’s just my senior year, I’m going to put it all out there,” Gargano said. “Sudden death, I think top is my best spot so I picked top on the ultimate ride out knowing that I would hold him down. Even though it got shaky at the end, I still had faith.”
In the prequarterfinals, the GMC went 4-7 overall as in addition to the aforementioned three who fell, East Brunswick’s Mark Schleifer (113), Edison’s Robert Cleary (120), Piscataway’s Eti-ini Udott (182), and Monroe’s Nick Goff (220), all of whom were Region 5 champions, all fell in their first bouts of the night.
Old Bridge’s Stephen Nadera (120), South Plainfield’s Dan Hedden (138), Edison’s Billy Povalac (145), Monroe’s Pat Dressel (195), and Edison’s Keith Serio (285) all lost in the preliminary round.
Any wrestler who lost a bout on Friday night will wrestle in the wrestlebacks round beginning at 10 a.m. on Saturday.
Staff writer Mike Becker: mbecker@mycentral
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