Hightstown wraps up undefeated league season
LAWRENCE » The Hightstown High wrestling team may have come up a little bit short of winning its first Mercer County Tournament title since 1982, but the Rams can take a lot of pride in the fact they are putting together the most successful dualmatch season in program history.
By blasting Lawrence, 55-18, on Wednesday night, Hightstown locked up its first undefeated league season in nearly 40 years.
It also picked up victory No. 19 and moved to within one more win of tying the 2006 and 2012 Hightstown teams for most wins with a season. With two quads remaining as well as an appearance in the sectionals, Hightstown is a lock to smash the school record.
“I think we were all a little disappointed (about finishing behind Hopewell in the MCT), but you have to keep moving forward,” said Hightstown coach Mike Russo. “I thought our entire team wrestled well tonight.”
Although the Hightstown win was totally expected, keep in mind it came against a sectional-bound Lawrence team (16-6) that came in with only league loss (to Hopewell Valley). As such, the margin of victory did represent a solid effort for the Rams.
As expected, nearly all the good action was in the middleweights where Hightstown got a 4-3 win from Elijah Rodriguez over Sean Mills at 152 and Nico Lever gave Jake Dallarda a good battle before falling 6-5 at 170 pounds. Tyree Doss also gave Lawrence’s Careem Frost a bit of a battle in a 10-5 loss at 145.
All of the rest of the bouts, however, were pretty much clear cut with Hightstown getting its usual upperweight pinning blitz from Chris Stavrou (195), Brenden Hansen (220) and heavyweight Brian Bonilla. All three of them won MCT titles on Saturday.
The huge lead also gave Hightstown the luxury of bumping up county runner-up Robert Fattore to 113 and inserting Joe Delli Bova into the lineup at 106. This worked to perfection as both pinned in the first period to complete the rout.
“It was nice to get Delli Bova in there,” said Russo. “He got cut by the basketball team and is coming on. We are going to need some new guys to contribute next year (because of graduation losses).”
Highlights for Lawrence included Reece Schenk head locking Isaiah Thornton to his back in the second period at 138 as well as a pin by Connor Verga at 182.
In addition to regular-season action, Hightstown will be at Long Branch and Lawrence will be at Hopewell Valley in sectional action Monday night.
Lawrence will be a huge underdog against Hopewell after losing to the Bulldogs, 54-19, earlier in the year. Hightstown also faces a tough assignment, but does have a fighting chance.
“I haven’t really looked at it too closely, but I think we have a shot in five or six bouts,” said Russo.
If Hightstown can win six and then pick up another upset or two along the way, it would have a chance to record just its second sectional win in program history (the first was 2007).”
A victory at Long Branch would really make this historic season even more special.
Hightstown (19-2) 55, Lawrence (16-6) 18
120-Obst (H) wbf; 126-Morina (H) d. Bajwa, 9-1; 132-K. Thornton (H) p. Patel, 1:03; 138-Schenk (L) p. I. Thornton, 2:44; 145-Frost (L) d. Doss, 10-5; 152-Rodriguez (H) d. Mills, 4-3; 160-A. Stavrou (H) p. Drake, 1:54; 170-Dallarda (H) d. Lever, 6-5; 182-Verga (L) p. Cobos, 1:40; 195-C. Stavrou (H) p. Cruz, 2:47; 220-Hansen (H) p. Abdelatty, 1:00; Hvy-Bonilla (H) p. Nasr, 4:00; 106-Delli Bovi (H) p. Maloney, 1:45; 1’13-Fattore (H) p. Rommel, :30.