Hightstown, Hopewell on collision course
HAMILTON >> You couldn’t have envisioned a more perfect day for the Hightstown High wrestling team (14-2) as it continues to gear up for this week’s showdown against Hopewell Valley.
Competing in a quad at Nottingham on Saturday, Hightstown got the day started with a 48-21 victory over the Swamp Rats in which 132-pounder Kether Thornton recorded his 100th win.
This was followed by a 4535 victory over Matawan in which Thornton bumped up and pinned in the last bout at 138 pounds.
And then — in the big one — Hightstown topped undefeated Pt. Pleasant Beach, 34-28, behind yet another match-winning pin by Thornton.
For those who like to compare scores, Pt. Pleasant Beach (16-1) beat Hopewell Valley, 4233, just a couple of wins ago.
“I think so,” said Hightstown coach Mike Russo when asked if he considers the win over PPB to be one of the biggest his program has had in a quite a while. “It was awesome.
Everything looked like it was going their way at first, but our kids really stepped up and responded.
“We were like two different teams from the way we wrestled Matawan and (Pt. Pleasant) Beach, but a lot of that was match-ups. Matawan is strong in the lightweights while Beach is strong in the upperweights.”
After PPB won four of the first five weights, Hightstown went to work on pins by Bryan Bonilla at 220 and sophomore heavyweight Brenden Hansen. Both of them were undefeated on the day and combined for five pins.
The Ram lightweights then got it done as well as Robert Fattore (106) and Sean Bauer (113) posted technical falls and Joseph Obst followed with a win by decision.
This set the stage for Thornton’s
third pin of the day and allowed Hightstown the luxury of being able to afford losses in the last two weights.
“It was a great match,” said Russo. “It was the first loss (13-3 to Chris Sherlock) this year for Chris Stavou, but we fought back. It went back and forth. Both teams really battled.”
In addition to the win over Nottingham earlier in the day, Hightstown got the job done against Matawan by owning the upperweights before the Shore team came roaring back down below.
It came down to the end and Matawan didn’t like the fact Hightstown bumped Thornton away from undefeated Kamrin O’Neill. But this was entirely the correct move by Russo to make sure his team won the match.
“If we had been ahead by 13 you would have seen that match, but the team comes first,” said Russo.
Thornton now has 102 career wins and seems primed to make a run at breaking the school record of 121 that was recently set by John Andre.
In the meantime, the excitement will continue to build for the home match against Hopewell Valley Saturday morning.
“I think it’s great for Mercer County wrestling,” said Russo. “We are hoping to get the students to show up and have a big turnout. We’ll definitely be ready to go.”
Hightstown has not beaten Hopewell Valley since 2007 and Hopewell is riding a 49-match winning streak in the Colonial Valley Conference.