Hopewell, Robbinsville stand atop division pack

Although the Hopewell Valley wrestling team might be a bit vulnerable in terms of successfully defending its remarkable string of seven straight Mercer County Tournament championships, the Bulldogs are again favored to win the Colonial Valley Conference’s Patriot Division.

Should it falter, the team that will win the division is Robbinsville, which along with Hopewell and Allentown is one of the top three teams in the county.

Of the other three squads in the Valley Division, a Steinert team that has returned largely intact is the one with the best chance of making some noise. 170-Tyler Sobel (Sr.); Brandon Bowman (Jr.) 182-Max Ronollo (Sr.), Brian LaCross (Fr.) 195-Ben Markulec (Sr.)

220-Nick Padalino (Jr.)

Hvy-Tim Coleman (Sr.), John Snyder (So.) Strengths: Lanciano is coming off a big sophomore year in which he won MCT and district titles, took a second at regions and went 34-7. The Bulldogs are formidable from 145 through 195. Justin Venezia was 21-14 and second at districts. Barnes (22-11), Lauricella (21-13) and Sobel (25-11) are all proven varsity wrestlers. Markulec was an MCT champion, second at districts and went 28-9. Jaoob Venezia is a good looking freshman and many of the newcomers enjoyed success on the JV level while waiting their turn to crack the lineup.

Outlook: Harpel enters the year with a career record of 192-66 at Hopewell, and with eight new starters in the lineup faces a challenge of continuing the Bulldogs’ remarkable string of county titles and compiling yet another undefeated CVC dual match season. You never want to bet against this program, however, and Hopewell could pull it off. The big difference if it stays on top would be it won’t happen nearly as easily as will take some time, but Lawrence appears headed back in the right direction.

sectionals should not be a problem at all.