District 20 wrestling - Old Bridge heavyweight seals team crown Vercammen wins 171

District 20 wrestling - Old Bridge heavyweight seals team crown Vercammen wins 171
BY GREG TUFARO • STAFF WRITER • FEBRUARY 21, 2009
http://www.mycentraljersey.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009902210354

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The Old Bridge High School wrestling team's once comfortable lead in the District 20 Tournament was slowly slipping away as the Knights, who advanced nine grapplers to the finals, kept losing in the championship round.



Old Bridge opened the finals with three consecutive losses beginning at 171 pounds before third-seeded heavyweight Justin Harrison, who entered the tournament with a deceptive 8-14 record, pinned top-seeded Tyler Carlock of Sayreville in the first period.

The meeting was one of four in the finals between wrestlers from Old Bridge and Sayreville, which was nipping at the Knights' heels.

Old Bridge went 2-7 in the finals, while Sayreville went 6-2 including a 3-1 record in head-to-head meetings between the teams.

In the end, Sayreville couldn't do enough to close the gap and wound up finishing 11 points behind Old Bridge, which won the title with 213 points.

Had the outcome of Harrison's heavyweight bout gone in Carlock's favor, the Bombers would have been crowned champions.

"I beat that kid in the summer duals so I was going in there actually pretty confident," said Harrison. "I had a lot of help from my teammates getting ready for this whole tournament. Our 215-pounder Tom Hunt drove me nuts all week. He kept telling me to get up and work harder. We all did a great job. We worked really hard and it all paid off."

Old Bridge held a 200-170 lead over Sayreville at the end of the semifinal round and appeared in excellent position to knock off the defending champions.

"It was a total team effort because we had a great first and second round," Old Bridge coach Bryan Garnett said. "Some of our weaker weight classes came through. We didn't have a good final round but it was the strength of the program, you could say, that won us the team title. I'm very happy with that."

Old Bridge advanced a total of 10 wrestlers to the Region V Tournament, which begins Tuesday at the Hunterdon Central Field House. Harrison and Steve Zafrani (160) advance as the school's lone champions.

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Gary Siriday (103), Anthony Geiger (112), Dan Bergfeldt (119), Noel Santiago (130), Patrick Ronan (140) and Ramon Santiago (152) all won titles for Sayreville.


Sam Emburgia (125), David Saley (145) and Mark Tyson (189) won titles for Monroe, which finished fourth as a team with 124 points.

South River's Adam Mongelli (135), the tournament's Outstanding Wrestler, South Brunswick's Brendan Vercammen (171) and North Brunswick's Sean Meagher (215) rounded out the district champions. South Brunswick's Joe Dougherty was named the District 20 Coach of the Year.

Vercammen, Tyson and Harrison were the only wrestlers without No. 1 seeds to win titles.

Harrison said the outcome of the team title, which appeared dicey toward the end, was never really in doubt.

"I personally was thinking that we were going to win it because we had a lot of kids in the finals," he said. "I think the team basically went in there with the confidence that we were going to pull away with it."

Harrison, whose team wrestled a brutal regular-season and tournament schedule, said he didn't think about his 10-14 record entering the championship round.

"I thought all my matches this year were all really close," he said, "so I considered that and said, you know what, I can win this tournament if I try."

Harrison said the emotion he felt after teammates and fans congratulated him for leading Old Bridge to the title was ineffable.

"It felt amazing," he said. "I came through for the team but never on something this big. I kept getting people shaking my hand. It felt great, just the feeling of happiness and all."

Team Scores: 1. Old Bridge 213; 2. Sayreville 202; 3. South Brunswick 137 1/2; 4. Monroe 124; 5. East Brunswick 58; 6. Spotswood 50; 7. WW-P South 47; 8. North Brunswick 45; 9. South River 33; 10. New Brunswick 22; 11. WW-P North 19.

Finals

103: Gary Siriday (Sayreville) p. Chris Conway (Old Bridge) 0:12; 112: Anthony Geiger (Sayreville) p. Joe Suozzo (Old Bridge) 5:49; 119: Dan Bergfeldt (Sayreville) d. James Pagano (South Brunswick) 2-1; 125: Sam Emburgia (Monroe) d. Conor Hayes (Old Bridge) 8-4; 130: Noel Santiago (Sayreville) d. Phil Sandford (Old Bridge) 7-5; 135: Adam Mongelli (South River) d. Christopher Pearson (Sayreville) 9-2; 140: Patrick Ronan (Sayreville) d. Kevin Wadiak (South Brunswick) 7-4; 145: David Saley (Monroe) p. Colin Preacher (South Brunswick) 2:31; 152: Ramon Santiago (Sayreville) p. Chris Garibaldi (Monroe) 1:56; 160: Steve Zafrani (Old Bridge) d. Cody Shelcusky (South Brunswick) 3-2; 171: Brendan Vercammen (South Brunswick) d. Trevor Haughney (Old Bridge) 9-8; 189: Mark Tyson (Monroe) p. Nick Orak (Old Bridge) 0:45; 215: Sean Meagher (North Brunswick) d. Tom Hunt (Old Bridge) 4-3 (OT); HWT: Justin Harrison (Old Bridge) p. Tyler Carlock (Sayreville) 1:22.

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3rd Place


103: John Saulle (Spotswood) d. Fran White (South Brunswick) 4-3; 112: Ovalid Majdoubi (New Brunswick) md. Kory Beach (WW-P. South) 19-8; 119: Kyle Jensen (Monroe) d. Matthew Paribello (East Brunswick) 7-3; 125: Tyler Jaramillo (South Brunswick) d. Christopher Ronan (Sayreville) 11-4; 130: Matt Salge (Spotswood) p. Drew Seroka (South Brunswick) 2:22; 135: Garrett Cuddey (Spotswood) p. Sebastian Bea (Old Bridge) 4:20; 140: Nick Underwood (Spotswood) d. Nick McIntosh (Old Bridge) 5-4; 145: Gino Schifano (Sayreville) d. Jaime Bond (Old Bridge) 10-9; 152: Chris Giordano (Old Bridge) d. Ryan Dalton (East Brunswick) 5-3; 160: Dylan Driscoll (North Brunswick) md. Brett Kamin (East Brunswick) 12-4; 171: Hunter Pipala (Monroe) d. John Segreto (East Brunswick) 8-5; 189: Jeff Goldhagen (South Brunswick) p. Rimoun Hanna (East Brunswick) 2:25; 215: Daniel Shirley (East Brunswick) p. Mo Reda (WW-P South) 2:48; HWT: Stuart Derman (WW-P South) d. Travis Santiago (Monroe) 7-5.

Semifinals

103: Gary Siriday (Sayreville) tf. John Saulle (Spotswood) 19-3, 6:00; Chris Conway (Old Bridge) d. Fran White (South Brunswick) 3-1.

112: Anthony Geiger (Sayreville) p. Kory Beach (WW-P South) 1:09; Joe Suozzo (Old Bridge) p. Ovalid Majdoubi (New Brunswick) 1:22.

119: Dan Bergfeldt (Sayreville) d. Kyle Jensen (Monroe) 6-1; James Pagano (South Brunswick) d. Matthew Paribello (East Brunswick) 2-0.

125: Sam Emburgia (Monroe) p. Christopher Ronan (Sayreville) 1:10; Conor Hayes (Old Bridge) p. Tyler Jaramillo (South Brunswick) 5:46.

130: Noel Santiago (Sayreville) d. Matt Salge (Spotswood) 5-4; Phil Sandford (Old Bridge) d. Drew Seroka (South Brunswick) 5-4.

135: Adam Mongelli (South River) tf. Sebastian Bea (Old Bridge) 18-1, 4:53; Christopher Pearson (Sayreville) p. Garrett Cuddey (Spotswood) 6:55 OT.

140: Patrick Ronan (Sayreville) d. Nick Underwood (Spotswood) 5-4; Kevin Wadiak (South Brunswick) p. Nick McIntosh (Old Bridge) 3:26.

145: David Saley (Monroe) md. Jaime Bond (Old Bridge) 11-1; Colin Preacher (South Brunswick) d. Gino Schifano (Sayreville) 4-3.

152: Ramon Santiago (Sayreville) p. Ryan Dalton (East Brunswick) 3:40; Chris Garibaldi (Monroe) d. Chris Giordano (Old Bridge) 12-7.

160: Steve Zafrani (Old Bridge) d. Dylan Driscoll (North Brunswick) 7-4; Cody Shelcusky (South Brunswick) d. Brett Kamin (East Brunswick) 7-4.

171: Trevor Haughney (Old Bridge) p. John Segreto (East Brunswick) 1:00; Brendan Vercammen (South Brunswick) d. Hunter Pipala (Monroe) 9-7.

189: Nick Orak (Old Bridge) d. Rimoun Hanna (East Brunswick) 9-4; Mark Tyson (Monroe) d. Jeff Goldhagen (South Brunswick) 9-8.

215: Sean Meagher (North Brunswick) d. Mo Reda (WW-P South) 5-1; Tom Hunt (Old Bridge) d. Daniel Shirley (East Brunswick) 7-5.

HWT: Tyler Carlock (Sayreville) p. Stuart Derman (WW-P South) 1:08; Justin Harrison (Old Bridge) p. Travis Santiago (Monroe) 3:44.

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