Robbinsville gets key results to beat Hightstown

ROBBINSVILLE » With many tournaments canceled and various programs forced to shut down, there’s been limited high school wrestling action during this holiday season.

Fortunately, one event did take place on Thursday morning and the result was a competitive match with Hightstown competing in a tri-meet at Robbinsville in a match-up of two of the top teams in the Colonial Valley Conference.

As it turned out, it was Robbinsville getting two key wins in the upper weights to beat Hightstown, 47-33. Coupled with a later 66-12 victory over Notre Dame, this left the Ravens at 3-1 on the season.

Hightstown, meanwhile, is now 2-1 after rebounding from the Robbinsville loss with a 57-12 triumph over Notre Dame (0-5).

Neither Hightstown or Robbinsville were at full strength for a match that in many ways unfolded as expected. Hightstown knew it had 12 points in the bank with upper weight guns Chris Stavrou (215) and Brenden Hansen (285). Both ended up receiving forfeits.

Coupled with a pin by Isaiah Thornton at 165, the two Raven forfeits allowed Hightstown to pull to within 30-27 after falling in a quick 18-0 hole.

This left Hightstown mathematically still alive, but although Robbinsville was missing its regular 106-pounder, the Rams could not take advantage because a wrestler missed weight.

“I screwed up; I take the blame,” said Hightstown coach Mike Russo. “I misread something and mistakenly thought we had a two-pound weight allowance all week.”

Following the forfeit at 106, Robbinsville then locked up the match with a technical fall from Anthony Viscido at 113 pounds.

Much like in an earlier dual-match win over Bordentown, the two Ravens who came up biggest were Nick Migliaccio (175) and Richard Esterly (190).

Hightstown has two tough wrestlers at these weights and was hoping to win both of those bouts, but instead Migliaccio pinned Liam O’Donnell in 4:47 and Esterly dropped Frank Garcia in a time of 3:40. Both took control with big second periods and were able to overpower their opponents as their bouts progressed.

“They are awesome,” said assistant Robbinsville coach Danny Hughes, who was filling in for head coach Sean Flynn. “They work out with each other and are constantly making each other better. They both stepped it up for us again.”

In terms of Robbinsville’s match against Notre Dame, the top result was turned in by Cole Cifrodelli at 144 pounds. He posted a 6-3 win over Nicholas Franzen, who was fourth at the Hunterdon Central Tournament on Tuesday.

Although Hightstown lost, all signs point to for another successful season for a program that has been on a nice run of late.

The Rams have some promising and athletic new wrestlers, including freshman Chris Cropanese (120) and sophomore Devron Lewis (150). Both pinned in the first period against Robbinsville, although the Ravens were missing regular 120-pounder Giacomo Bottoni.

And the Stavrou-Hansen combination at the end is quite possibly the best onetwo punch in the county.

Competing in the Parsippany Hills Tournament earlier in the week, Stavrou won his second tourney of the season and sure looks fully recovered after sitting out last year with an injury. As a sophomore, Stavrou was 33-8 and a state qualifier.

Hansen, meanwhile, was forced to settle for second at Parsippany Hills, but keep in mind his loss came in the final against a wrestler who was fourth in the state last year. Hansen was 38-5 as a sophomore and 12-2 during last year’s abbreviated season.