New Brunswick makes history with two wrestlers in GMC tournament finals

Hired just two weeks before the start of the season, New Brunswick High School head wrestling coach Ben Ostner’s transition was eased through the help of Ramiro Osuna

A senior heavyweight, Osuna joined 220-pound teammate Keshon Davila in the 2018 Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament finals, becoming the first wrestlers in school history to reach the championship round.

“His leadership and guidance really made my transition easier,” said Ostner, who succeeded Jason McLean after the former New Brunswick mentor was hired as the head coach at Muhlenberg College. “I have never seen senior leadership like Ramiro’s before.”

Osuna had the Zebras training in the hallways, on the bleachers and on the track before the official start of practice.

McLean brought wrestling back to New Brunswick, whose program had been dormant for more than two decades prior, 11 years ago.

The Zebras have come a long way since the program was resurrected. During McLean’s first year, wrestlers trained in a school hallway without mats and traveled to juxtaposed settings such as Peddie and Perth Amboy to get in work.

Soon afterward, the district and the city began investing in the sport. New Brunswick has benefited from a recreation and middle school program, as well as a fully-matted state-of-the-art wrestling room with bleachers in an auxiliary gym. All have contributed to the program’s slow and steady ascent.

New Brunswick entered the conference tournament with a 9-6 dual meet record including three losses by a total of eight points.

The Zebras advanced six wrestlers to the quarterfinals, five of who were guaranteed a top six finish, and only two of New Brunswick’s six medalists are seniors. Davila, a sophomore, and Osuna, a fourth-year starter, form the team’s cornerstone. They both lost in the finals.

“This year,” Ostner said, “to get two (into the conference tournament finals) really shows what we are trying to do and where we are at right now. Every kid in the room is getting after it and competing. We have a great nucleus of kids. They’re tremendous kids who work their butts off.”

Davila and Osuna benefit from being training partners and from rolling in the room with Ostner, who was born in 1989, three years after the GMC tournament's inception.

A football player who is transforming himself into a wrestler, Davila could have entered this year’s tournament at 195 pounds, but opted to compete at 220 because he felt the weight class afforded him the best route to the final.

Earlier this month, Carteret’s Frank Coghan pinned Davila in the finals of the Buc Classic, an invitational tournament at Red Bank. In the conference tournament semifinals, Davila turned the tide, pinning Coghan for the right to face South Plainfield’s Zach DelVecchio, who InterMat ranks No. 11 in the country, for the 220-pound title.

“That’s a credit to his work ethic,” Ostner said, “and the time he puts in every single day.”

Osuna, who stands 6-foot-3 and weighs 275 pounds, is an athletic and intelligent heavyweight with a 3.78 GPA who has scored 1200 on the SAT.

“He’s setting himself up nicely (for college),” Ostner said, noting that Osuna also volunteers at a local church. “He’s the total package.”

Ostner said this season has been a bit of a rebuilding year, but the rookie head coach may be selling himself short. The Zebras are in their second year competing in the White Division and have more than held their own.

After leading New Brunswick to a 21-8 record during the 2015-16 campaign, McLean was named the Blue Division Coach of the Year. That season included a berth in the NJSIAA team tournament.

McLean groomed a half dozen region qualifiers, but none of his wrestlers ever advanced to Atlantic City.

Osuna may represent New Brunswick’s best chance this year at qualifying a wrestler for the state tournament.