Hopewell captures its 12th title in 13 years
ROBBINSVILLE >> What a difference a week makes for the Hopewell Valley High School wrestling team.
Seven days after seeing its Colonial Valley Conference 50-match winning streak come to a halt in a loss at Hightstown, Hopewell Valley stormed back on Saturday to capture its staggering 12th Mercer County Tournament championship in the last 13 years.
In addition to getting some revenge against a Hightstown team that came in second, what made this victory even more special was on paper Hopewell was not the favorite and it entered the tournament with limited first-place potential.
Sure enough, Hopewell had only one champion in the tournament at Robbinsville High when Josh Beigman scored an 8-5 victory over topseeded Connor Verga of Lawrence in the 182-pound final. Beigman’s win, however, was positively huge because it put his team in the position where it could afford to withstand Hightstown winning the next three weights.
This the Rams did as Chris Stavrou (195), Bryan Bonilla (220) and heavyweight Brenden Hensen all grabbed gold. Hightstown also had a fourth champion when it got a second straight MCT title from Kether Thornton at 132, but in the end the Rams still finished 10 points behind Hopewell.
In other results, Robbinsville came in third behind first-place showings by Shailen Savur at 106 and Drake Torrington (126). Wrestling hard under first-year coach Jess Monzo, Princeton also put together a strong tournament with three champions and a fourth-place team finish.
“Beigman’s win was everything,” said Hopewell Valley coach Mario Harpel. “We needed to do it as a team and that’s what we did. It’s a million little things that add up.”
From the beginning it was clear Hopewell Valley was a more dialed in team that it was in the dual against
Hightstown.
This started showing in the semifinals where the Lopez brothers, Allen at 126 and Alejandro at 138, both advanced to the finals. The win by Alejandro Lopez was particularly uplifting because he was way behind in the third period before storming back.
Although he ended up losing in his semifinal, Hopewell Valley’s Joey Vannozzi also reflected his team’s fighting spirit by twice scoring backpoints against undefeated and eventual 132-pound champion Thornton.
You could go on, including the 152-pound fifth-place match where Ben Shevlin picked up a major at the third-period buzzer. Truth be hold, Hopewell Valley also got a huge four points when heavyweight John Snyder won his third-place bout by medical forfeit.
“It’s just really cool,” said Harpel. “I’m really proud of the entire team. After we lost to Hightstown we talked to the kids. We told them they could either pick it or up or they could go home. It was a great effort by everyone.”
Although a Hopewell team that is one of the truly great dynasties in the history of the MCT in any sport ended up as the big winner, there were plenty of other highlights to go around.
For Allentown, Joey Lamparelli became the CVC’s winningest wrestler — it was inaccurate when he was called Mercer’s all-time win leader because Allentown is in Monmouth County — by beating Hopewell’s Jacob Venezia in the 120-pound final.
Joining Lamparelli in the winners’ circle was teammate Nick Golden, who looks ready to make some major noise in the post season after raising his record to 29-1 with a major decision in the 160-pound final.
Princeton’s three champions were Aaron Munford (24-3 at 138), Dominic Riendeau-Krause (19-7 at 145) and James Romaine (152). Romaine had arguably the best win of those three in the final when he was able to ride out Allentown’s tough Matt Paglia for a 1-0 victory.
“We feed off each other,” said Romaine when asked about Princeton’s murderers row in the middleweights.
Princeton also got a fourth at 106 by defending state champion Chloe Ayres. In all probability this was the highest finish by a girl in the history of the MCT.
The two others champions were Nottingham’s Sudesh Gurung (113) and Hamilton’s Ryan Bennett (170).
Gurung had a very nice win when he upset Hopewell Valley’s top seeded Christian Micikas by the score of 7-4, although by that time Hopewell Valley already had the team title locked up with no more Hightstown wrestlers remaining to take the mat. Bennett, meanwhile, majored Lawrence’s Jack Dallarda, 14-4, to run his strong record to 23-2.
Team Scores