SPORTS

Wrestling: Bound Brook advances four to quarterfinals

Harry Frezza
@thefrez56

ATLANTIC CITY – Bound Brook senior 170-pounder Josh Ugalde has gotten by the last few weeks with just enough offense to win District 18 and Region V titles.

That won’t be enough to get him his first state title this weekend at the NJSIAA State Wrestling Championships at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.

Ugalde, the top-seeded 170-pounder in the upper bracket, advanced to Saturday’s quarterfinals with a 1-0 victory over Brick Township senior Kyle Wojtaszek. That was the same score Ugalde beat Bridgewater-Raritan junior Kyle Murphy to win region and district titles the last two Saturdays.

Wrestlebacks open the program Saturday morning (first-round losers on Friday) on eight mats, 10 a.m.; with quarterfinals and a second round of wrestle backs at noon. Semifinals and a third round of wrestle backs, begin at 5 p.m. followed at 7 p.m. by a fourth round of wrestle backs.

The tournament concludes Sunday, beginning with a fifth round of wrestlebacks at 10 a.m.; consolation finals (third through eighth places) at 11 a.m. and the championship finals at 3 p.m.

Ugalde (35-1) made it to the state final last year at 160 pounds, but fell 6-5 to East Brunswick’s Jonathan Schleifer. He meets Holy Cross senior Kenny Long in the state quarterfinal this afternoon.

“I’m not happy with the way I wrestled tonight, I have to open it up,” said Ugalde, who will wrestle at the University of Maryland.

“It’s really in my own head,” added Ugalde.

Bound Brook has four of the area’s seven quarterfinalists.

Ugalde will be joined by brothers Sean Glasgow (152) and Stephan Glasgow (145) and senior 132-pounder Nick Accetta, who beat Region IV champ William Rose of Hasbrouck Heights 1-0 in an ultimate tiebreaker. North Hunterdon senior 126-pounder Ryan Pomrinca advanced to his fourth state quarterfinal with a 3-1 victory and Murphy won two bouts to make it to the quarterfinals in his first trip to the state tournament.

Piscataway freshman Mike Petite, the Region V Outstanding Wrestler at 160 last Saturday after winning the title as a ninth seed, also advanced to the state quarterfinals.

Accetta will face Region III champ Nick Farro, who beat Accetta’s former teammate Craig De La Cruz now at Summit in the Region III final. De La Cruz, who won two state titles while at Bound Brook the last two years, is also a quarterfinalist at 132.

De La Cruz and Accetta have talked about the possibility of the two former teammates meeting in Atlantic City. But that is going to take some doing.

Accetta, beaten by Monroe’s Sal Profaci in the Region V final last Saturday, rode Rose out in the ultimate tiebreaker after winning by fall in the preliminary round.

“I know that any one of these matches can be my last,” said Accetta. “I can be happy if I lose, but do my best. But I haven’t been getting my offense.”