Lamparelli seeking 4th MCT title as top seed at 120 pounds
ROBBINSVILLE >> With most of the weight classes lacking depth and not many highly-anticipated individual collisions in the works, much of the attention at this year’s Mercer County Wrestling Tournament will center on the team race.
Will pre-tournament favorite Hightstown capture its first MCT title since 1982 and its second overall when the action gets underway at Robbinsville High Saturday morning?
Or will defending champion Hopewell Valley find a win to its 12th MCT title in 13 years after seeing its 50-match Colonial Valley Conference winning streak snapped by Hightstown last week.
Defending individual champions are Allentown’s Joe Lamparelli and Nick Golden, Hopewell Valley’s Jacob Venezia and Christian Micikas, and Hightstown’s Kether Thornton.
On course to become the CVC’s all-time winningest wrestler, Lamparelli is looking to join the list of four-time county champions. Venezia, who is only a junior, is seeking his third MCT title.
Those two figure to meet in the 120-pound final in what would be a match-up of clearly two of the best wrestlers in the entire tournament.
The tournament has a bit of a scheduling switch this year with the three placement rounds all to be held at the same time. Look for those rounds to take place around 3:30 or 4 o’clock.
The following are the top four seeds and a brief comment for each weight.
106 >> 1. Shailen Savur (R’ville) 19-2; 2. Robert Fattore (Hightstown) 14-8; 3. Chloe Ayres (Princeton) 13-6; 4. Nicholas Ricigliano (Steinert) 13-5.
Third last year, Savur is clean against CVC opponents and has pinned in nearly all his league matches. Look to see if defending state champion Chloe Ayres wrestles to her No. 3 seed. If she does, it will easily be the highest finish in MCT history by a girl.
113 >> 1. Christian Micikas (Hopewell) 16-5; 2. Sudesh Gurung (Nottingham) 13-6; 3. Cory Stallworth (Trenton) 145; 4. Rommel Mendez (Lawrence) 15-6.
Hopewell could have put Venezia at this weight, but coach Mario Harpel showed he has Micikas’ back by putting him in a position to quite possibly win a second straight title in his senior season. Micikas has not wrestled Gurung this year, but did pin Stallworth. Gurung also pinned Stallworth.
120 >> 1. Jacob Venezia (Hopewell) 20-1; 2. Joe Lamparelli (Allentown) 27-0; 3. Dylon Cifrodelli (R’ville) 11-7; 4.Silvia Aparcio (Hamilton) 10-5.
Not that it really matters, but Venezia got the top seed by virtue of the point system. This shapes up as the heavyweight final of the tournament. Lamparelli is going for his fourth straight, is undefeated and ranked fifth in the state by The Trentonian. Venezia’s only loss is to Toms
River North hammer Ryan Rosenthal, who is undefeated and ranked fourth in the state by The Trentonian at 113. As good as Venezia is, keep in mind he’s really a 113-pounder and the underdog here.
126 >> 1. Drake Torrington (R’ville) 22-12; 2. Allen Lopez (Hopewell) 16-7; 3. Anthony Verdi (Steinert) 12-6; 4. Gio Morina (Hightstown) 14-8.
A huge favorite, Torrington’s lone loss is to Freehold
Borough’s tough Nico Messina (17-2). Hopewell’s Lopez looks even tougher when he drops down to 120, but is in a good position to reach the final. Lopez has already pinned Verdi and his only in-league loss was to Lamparelli.
132 >> 1. Kether Thornton (Hightstown) 23-0; 2 Chris Sockler (Princeton) 16-7; 3. Cole Cifrodelli (Robbinsville) 15-8; 4. Joe Vannozzi (Hopewell) 12-11.
A defending champion after also winning three bouts at regions last year, Thornton is on a real roll and undefeated. This weight is much more about who finishes second and third. 138 >> 1. Aaron Munford (Princeton) 20-3; 2. Mason Louderback (Notre Dame) 14-8; 3. Alejandro Lopez (Hopewell) 13-10; 4. Reece Schenck (Lawrence) 16-7.
Princeton’s Munford won the Collingswood Tournament and comes in with just the three losses, all of which were out of county. Munford has already majored Louderback. Lopez beat Schenk by the score of 5-3 in a dual and could really help his team by reaching the final.
145 >> 1. Dominic RiendeauKrause (15-7); 2. Career Frost (Lawrence) 12-3; 3. Elijah Rodriguez (Highstown) 16-4; 4. Owen Weigle (Ewing) 14-7.
This weight could go a lot of different ways. RiendeauKrause lost to Frost, but Frost recently lost to fifth seeded Andrew Nixon of Hamilton. Rodriguez has often been at 152 and could be the guy. If he is, the Rams could be tough to stop in terms of the team race. 152 >> 1. Matt Paglia (Allentown) 25-2; 2. James Romaine (Princeton) 8-3; 3. Sean Mills (Lawrence) 17-5; 4. Robert Doss (Hightstown) 12-10.
Paglia comes in with the big record and has pinned all but one of his CVC’s opponent. The one he only beat by decision was Hightstown’s Chris Stavrou, the No. 2 seed at 160. Romaine is a capable wrestler who missed one month of the season because of an injury. 160 >> 1. Nick Golden (Allentown) 25-1; 2. Alex Stavrou (Hightstown) 20-3; 3. Te’amo Nazario (Trenton) 15-4; 4. Kwanir Edwards (Nottingham) 7-4.
After recently becoming the fifth Allentown wrestler to reach the 100-win mark, Golden is looking extremely formidable with just the one loss. That was to Jackson Memorial’s Hunter Smith and was up a weight. All you need to know is Golden has already majored the first seed at 170 and the second seed at 182 as well as pinning the second seed at 170.
170 >> 1. Ryan Bennett (Hamilton) 19-2; 2. Jake Dallarda (212); 3. Tommy Zovich (West Windsor North) 15-5; 4. Nico Leaver (Hightstown)15-7.
Bennett got the top seed by virtue of wins over Zovich and Leaver. Leaver and Zovich have not wrestled. Dallarda is up a weight and has not wrestled any of the other top three seeds.
182 >> 1. Connor Verga (Lawrence) 19-3; 2. Josh Biegman (Hopewell) 20-3; 3. Paskal Miga (Allentown) 21-5; 4. Dorian Henry (Nottingham) 12-8.
Verga is up a weight and beat Beigman last year. Look out for Miga, who is a physical wrestler and pinned LaCross, the top seed at 195. Miga’s only CVC loss was to Tim Glynn, who is also a top three seed at 195.
195 >> 1. Brian LaCross (Hopewell Valley) 17-6; 2. Chris Stavrou (Hightstown) 21-2; 3. Tim Glynn (West Windsor North) 18-3; 4. Jaylen Bynes (Notre Dame) 13-5.
There’s a triangle working here. Stavrou recently beat LaCross, 8-7, but was pinned by Glynn. LaCross, meanwhile, owns a major decision over Glynn. Bynes has some muscle as well. This could be one of the more entertaining brackets.
220 >> 1. Bryan Bonilla (Hightstown) 23-0; 2. Christian Cacciabaudo (Hopewell Valley) 18-5; 3. Daniel Schweitzer (Allentown) 11-8; 4. Eric Brown (Trenton) 12-8.
Bonilla will be difficult to stop and has been crushing the opposition all year long. In the Allentown-Hopewell dual match, Cacciabaudo bumped up and was pinned by Brenden Hansen.
HVY >> 1. Matt Moore (West Windsor North) 15-5; 2. Moaamen Nasr (Lawrence)17-5; 3. Brenden Hansen (Hightstown) 21-1; 4. Mateo Cruz (Robbinsville) 11-5.
This is another weight that should have some competitive action. Moore has lost to the fourth-seeded Cruz, but also pinned both Hansen and Nasr. Obviously, it’s the only loss of the year for Hansen, who has not yet met Nasr.