Wrestling: East Brunswick trio makes history at Region V
RARITAN TOWNSHIP - East Brunswick High School wrestling coach Matt Pazinko was inspired to go to the record book Saturday afternoon, which was a very good sign considering there was no precedent to what the Bears did at the Region V Tournament.
The Bears won three championships, something they'd never accomplished in the many years they've come to the Hunterdon Central Fieldhouse.
Defending champ Mitchell Polito (113, won at 106 last year), two-time champ Mark Schleifer (120, won at 113 two years ago) and Alec Gleason (126) became the very first Bears’ trio to win region titles in the same year. In fact, the Bears opened the tournament with three straight wins, beating Hunterdon Central’s big guns of Jack Bauer, Hunter Graf and Peter Nace. Graf was a returning region champ and finished eighth in the state last year at 113. Schleifer was sixth at 120 a year ago after losing in overtime to Bound Brook’s Joe Casey in the region final.
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The top four wrestlers in each weight class qualified for the NJSIAA state tournament next Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.
The three from East Brunswick were the wrestlers from the only ones from the Greater Middlesex Conference to win titles. South River’s seventh-seeded freshman Joey Zargo was a spirited runner up at 132, Piscatway’s second seeds Joseph Hatcher and Mike Petite were second at 152 and 160. Monroe’s Nick Lombard (145), Sayreville’s Mike Porcaro (285) and Perth Amboy’s Joseph Pacheco (106) were also second.
“Mitch I thought had a very good shot at winning, he was a favorite, I knew Mark was going to have a tough match there with Graf. Gleason I thought was the long shot here, but he was the one who just came right out and dominated,” said Pazinko, whose brother Glen was one of two East Brunswick region champs in 1985 along with Darren Schulman, now a Bound Brook assistant. “We have had some success here, but definitely never three in a row. To be able to start out a tournament that way against three Hunterdon Central. They have the home crowd. All three of them wrestled very, very well. I'm very impressed with all them.”
The finals started at 113 where the top-seeded Polito majored Bauer 11-1 after beating him at 106 in last year’s final. No. 1 seed Schleifer topped returning champ Graf 7-4, scoring the winning takedown with 32 seconds left in regulation. Gleason – the No. 2 seed – took the pace to Nace from start to finish, scoring a 12-4 major over the top seed
“I wanted to come out, get the early lead and keep building on it and building on it and building on it,” said Polito, who was fourth at the region as a freshman.
Polito said he was looking forward to matching up with Central’s talented three.
“It was pretty exciting because we didn't get to wrestle them in the regular season. We knew we would have some good matchups against them and it ended up being our final matches,” Polito said. “We knew if we wrestled our best we would win all three and I think we wrestled our best. Hopefully we can get three on the podium (top eight medals) next week.”
Others from the GMC to qualify for the states: Jake Wiatroski (Old Bridge, third at 113), Norberto Torres (Perth Amboy, third, 120), David Loniewski (Bishop Ahr, fourth, 120), Dylan O’Connor (Bishop Ahr, third, 126), James Rodriguez (Perth Amboy, third, 132), Nick Recine (Piscataway, third, 170), Andrew Brazicki (Bishop Ahr, third, 195), Kaylon Bradley (Monroe, fourth, 195), Samuel Rogers (Piscataway, fourth, 220).
FINALS
113: 1-Mitchell Polito (East Brunswick) md. 2-Jack Bauer (Hunterdon Central) 11-1; 120: 1-Mark Schleifer (East Brunswick) d. 2-Hunter Graf (Hunterdon Central) 7-4; 126: 2-Alec Gleason (East Brunswick) md. 1-Peter Nace (Hunterdon Central) 12-4; 132: 1-Russell Benson (Raritan) p. 7-Joey Zargo (South River) 5:59; 138: 1-Robert Cleary (Bound Brook) d. 2-Matthew Kolonia (Delaware Valley) 4-3; 145: 1-Joe Casey (Bound Brook) d. 2-Nicholas Lombard (Monroe) 6-5; 152: 1-Stephan Glasgow (Bound Brook) md. 2-Joseph Hatcher (Piscataway) 20-6; 160: 1-Mekhi Lewis (Bound Brook) p. 2-Michael Petite (Piscataway) 0:31; 170: 1-Nicholas Caracappa (St. John Vianney) d. 2-Derrick Wiley (Matawan) 5-4; 182: 1-George Walton (Bound Brook) p. 2-Michael Iodice (Hunterdon Central) 5:26; 195: 1-Kyle Lightner (Delaware Valley) p. 2-Theo Addison (Rumson) 3:21; 220: 1-Victor Lacombe (Hunterdon Central) d. 2-Will Ortman (Hopewell Valley) 3-1; 285: 2-Dylan D`Amore (Montgomery) d. 1-Michael Porcaro (Sayreville) 1-0; 106: 8-Tyler Klinsky (Middletown North) d. 3-Joseph Pacheco (Perth Amboy) 5-0.
THIRD/FIFTH PLACE
106: 3rd: 1-Tyler Pepe (St. John Vianney) d. 4-Chris Lanciano (Hopewell Valley) 4-1; 5th: 6-Mike O'Brien (Edison) p. 2-Robert Taddeo (Raritan) 5:32.
113: 3rd: 10-Freddy Luchs (Middletown North) by forfeit over 3-Jake Wiatroski (Old Bridge); 5th: 9-Maximus Parra (Piscataway) d. 4-Charles Barrale (Raritan) 8-3.
120: 3rd: 3-Norberto Torres (Perth Amboy) d. 6-David Loniewski (Bishop Ahr) 5-4; 5th: 4-Mike Botte (Old Bridge) d. 5-Jaleel Gopaul (Matawan) 8-7.
126: 3rd: 3-Dylan O'Connor (Bishop Ahr) d. 4-Alec Bobchin (Princeton) 5-3; 5th: 5-Thomas Tarantino (Pingry) d. 7-Andrew Lombard (Monroe) 2-1.
132: 3rd: 6-James Rodriguez (Perth Amboy) d. 3-Connor Mills (Delaware Valley) 3-2; 5th: 5-Troy Gallo (Holmdel) d. 4-Aidan Dillon (Pingry) 9-2.
138: 3rd: 4-Bryce Hall (Hunterdon Central) d. 6-Jack McLafferty (St. John Vianney) 4-1; 5th: 5-Sean Thompson (WWPS) d. 3-Donald Albach (Monroe) 1-0.
145: 3rd: 3-Stanley Wojdylak (Middletown North) d. 5-TJ Caswell (Manville) 1-0; 5th: 4-Kevin Ciresa (Hunterdon Central) d. 6-Rhys Zigich (Delaware Valley) 2-1.
152: 3rd: 5-Scott Dupont (Holmdel) d. 4-Francis Dillon (Pingry) 7-2; 5th: 3-Nick Addison (Rumson) d. 6-Steven O'Campo (WWPS) 5-4
160: 3rd: 4-Nicholas Cofone (Middletown North) p. 5-Kevin Faulkner (Hillsborough) :56; 5th: 3-James Verbeyst (Princeton) p. 11-Nicholas Weikel (Monroe) 1:55.
170: 3rd: 3-Nick Recine (Piscataway) p. 7-Travis Hays (Bound Brook) 2:29; 5th: 9-George Burdick (Raritan) p. 4-Jason Minkel (East Brunswick) :45.
182: 3rd: 3-Tom Anderson (Middletown North) p. 4-Josiah Walker (St. John Vianney) 4:11; 5th: 7-Michael Dooley (Hillsborough) p. 8-Gustavo Palacio (South Brunswick) 3:39.
195: 3rd: 5-Andrew Brazicki (Bishop Ahr) d. 4-Kaylon Bradley (Monroe) 12-5; 5th: 3-Andrew Conzo (Matawan) md. 6-Paris Foster (Piscataway) 11-3.
220: 3rd: 5-Steven Giannios (St. John Vianney) p. 4-Samuel Rogers (Piscataway) 4:41; 5th: 6-Ethan Wolf (Raritan) d. 7-Javon Mercado (New Brunswick) 3-2.
285: 3rd: 3-Jervey Sistrunk (Bound Brook) d. 4-Michael Tyle (Manville) 3-2 UTB; 5th: 5-Lou Ceras (Monroe) by forfeit.