South Brunswick's Vercammen finally cashing in

South Brunswick's Vercammen finally cashing in

Sunday, March 1, 2009

By KEN WEINGARTNER
For The Trentonian

The Trentonian (trentonian.com), Serving Trenton, NJ

Sports
FLEMINGTON — Brendan Vercammen paid his dues last season. Now he’s cashing in on a trip to the Jersey Shore.

Vercammen, a junior at South Brunswick High School, qualified for the state wrestling tournament in Atlantic City by winning the Region V title at 171 pounds at Hunterdon Central yesterday. Vercammen won 2-1 in triple overtime against Hillsborough’s George Goddiess in the final.

Last year, Vercammen failed to advance from District 20 to the regional tourney, but he was wrestling up at 189 pounds. Still, he finished 21-9 last season.

“To win regions is a good feeling,” Vercammen said. “I’m wrestling my own weight this year; I was wrestling up a lot last year. I worked hard in the offseason, so it was a lot better this year. I was ready.”

Vercammen entered this season’s Region V tourney as the No. 1 seed after beating Old Bridge’s Trevor Haughney for the district crown. He is 31-7 and has faced a tough slate; two of his losses were to South Plainfield’s Mike Wagner while he also dropped matches to Paulsboro’s Jimmy Gentile and Rutgers Prep’s Kacy Epps.

“It doesn’t really surprise me. He’s paid his dues,” South Brunswick coach Joe Dougherty said. “Straight up, we go to the Brick Memorial tournament at the beginning of the year and he got some losses right off the bat. He wrestled Wagner a couple of times. Our schedule allows our kids to wrestle against quality competition throughout the year.”

In the regional final, Vercammen was able to ride out Goddiess in the second overtime period and then score an escape for the decisive point.

“The last match was tough,” Vercammen said. “He didn’t really do anything, so I had to do a lot of work. When we got to overtime, I just wanted to go as hard as I could. I’m good on top and bottom, so once I got past the first (overtime) period, I felt I could win it.”

“It was my goal to make it there this season, so I’m just going to go and have fun,” Vercammen said.

Dougherty labeled Vercammen’s situation as “win-win.”

“Only time will tell how he does next week,” Dougherty said. “That is a completely unique environment. Regardless, he’s there as a junior. If he handles it really well, that’s great. If he doesn’t, he’s been there and has got another shot at it. We’ll just go and play with our chips.”



URL: http://www.trentonian.com/articles/2009/03/01/sports/doc49aa26e73f2bc233403667.prt

© 2010 trentonian.com, a Journal Register Property