REGION NOTES

There were some very deserving candidates from the local area who were inducted into the Region V Hall of Fame Saturday.

Two were Lawrence High’s Savino brothers, Mike and the older Mark, who was Mercer County’s first state champion in 2004. Only a cynic would point out how ridiculous it is Lawrence is no longer even in Region V.

The other was former Hunterdon Central coach Steve Gibble, who was well on his way to 400 wins before being disgracefully fired by the Hunterdon Central Schoolboard. Gibble has since won a lawsuit and let’s hope he receives a massive settlement that the school board has to explain to the disgruntled Hunterdon Central taxpayers.

There were some excellent finals at Region V, but none could top the battle between Ungar and St. John Vianney’s Dean Peterson at 106.

There were some wild scrambles in this match and it looked like Peterson was going to win on a rideout in the third overtime, but he was hit with a penalty point for removing his mouthpiece. For what it’s worth, the penalty point wasn’t assessed until somebody pointed out the infraction from the stands.

Peterson then looked like he was going to win anyway with another rideout, but instead Ungar somehow got up and reversed in the final seconds as Central fieldhouse exploded. These two are both freshmen and almost sure to run into each other again.

As for Region VI at Brick Memorial, check out the video posted by Northern Burlington assistant Bobby Ray Stinson on Facebook in which an NBC wrestler was called for a defensive pin.

This was a brutal call for two reasons: It wasn’t even close to being a pin and it was in the blood round of the tournament whereby the loser would not advance to states. Mark Savino, Lawrence Raamiah Bethea, Trenton Brandon Cray, Steinert Brandon Cray, Steinert