Nottingham grabs second at Ewing tournament
EWING TWP. » Although nobody is ever going to confuse the season-opening Ewing Blue Devil Kitashima Classic with the Beast of the East, it was a positive opening for the Nottingham High wrestling team on Saturday.
After previously learning its own opening-day tournament had been canceled, Nottingham signed up for the Ewing competition and the result was a second-place showing with 135 points. Pennsville easily won the team title with 182 points.
What’s more, Jason Marasco’s Nottingham Swamprats had plenty of individual highlights, including first-place showings by Curtis Selmon (120), Jacob Van
Der Horn (144) and Dorian Henry (215).
Other highlights from the competition included host Ewing getting gold from Angel Gonzalez (106) and Owen Weigle at 175 pounds. West Windsor South’s lone winner was 113-pounder Colin Cote.
In terms of the rest of the team standings, Ewing finished third with 133 points, while Lawrenceville Prep was fourth with 128. In addition, West Windsor South was fifth, St. Rose was sixth and Burlington City was seventh. Allentown was forced to withdraw because of covid issues.
As was the case with Cote at 113, Selmon was declared the champion when he won via a three-man round-robin format at 120 pounds.
In one of the best bouts of the tournament, Van Der Horn then captured Nottingham’s second title in a wild 12-10 overtime win over Pennsville’s Jackson Painter. This was a back-and-forth affair in which Van Der Horn was able to score with standing cradles before finally securing the win with a takedown in OT.
Henry also won a thriller when he topped Jacob Baker of Pennsville, 5-4, with a reversal off a roll late in the third period.
“He had control of my leg, but I was able to catch him,” said Henry, who was 9-1 and a region selection last year after posting a 25-17 record as a sophomore. “It was just what I have been working on in practice.”
Also a fine football player who is drawing interest from colleges such as Stockton, Henry will really be a force — if he can get down to 190 pounds.
“That would be the ideal situation,” said Marasco, who has an abundance of depth in the upper weights. “Overall I’m totally happy with how this tournament went.”
Following the victory by Gonzalez at 106, Ewing was able to crown another champion when Weigle pinned Locke McMurray of Lawrenceville in a time of 3:35 at 175 pounds. Look for good things this year from Weigle, who was a region selection last season when he went 7-1.
“I wrestled over the summer to get ready for my last year,” said Weigle. “I want to go out and explode in my senior year. My goals are getting to regions and setting an
example for the younger guys on our team.”
In addition to its three champs, Nottingham got seconds from Aiden Babkowski (126) and Bradley Toro, who was pinned by Lawrenceville Prep’s massive Jalen Lespinasse
in the heavyweight final. Also finishing second was Ewing’s Gavin Dwyer at 165 pounds.
Team standings: 1. Pennsville 182; 2. Nottingham 135; 3. Ewing 133; 4. Lawrenceville Prep 128; 5. West Windsor South 90; 6. St. Rose 79; 7. Burlington City 22.