Monday, February 25, 2013

Wrestling: Districts 1, 2, 3 and 17 by the numbers

We had a great weekend of wrestling in the four districts that house teams in the Open Mike area.

Here's a capsule look at some of more noteworthy accomplishments:

312 -- Phillipsburg's total of district champions since Bill Lowe won the first in 1948. The Stateliners had a tournament-best five winners at District 1 -- freshman Brandon Paetzell, Anthony Johnson, Max Elling, Jimmy Schuitema and Broderick Bupivi. The Warren County school which has had five winners in three straight tournaments, won its 41st district team championship -- the first in 1967 -- and its third in a row. Only Delaware Valley (1992) and Hackettstown (2006, '07 and '10) have interrupted P'burg's title string since 1991. P'burg has produced at least one champion every year but 1950 and '55. The 'Liners will try to add to their region record total of 112 champs this week at Wallkill Valley.

99 -- Total number of champions for Kittatinny, which matched a program record with six winners on Saturday in District 3. Freshman Austin Scrivani started the run at 126 pounds, followed by Tom Murphy (138), Nick Romyns (145), Kieran Gerrity (170), Jake Brook (182) and Garrett Armstrong (220). Scrivani joined his brother, Garrett, who won two titles for the Cougars in 2010-11. Romyns' 11-6 win over High Point's Jason Gaccione, a 2012 champ, was his second title and earned him the Outstanding Wrestler Award. Kittatinny also claimed its 10th team championship and second in a row over High Point.

5 -- North Hunterdon led all teams in District 17 with five champions -- the most for the Lions since crowning that many in 2001. Paul Robinson (106), Ryan Pomrinca (120), Mike Ciavarro (152) and Dan Pepe (195) all won their first, while Liam Korbul repeated as the 182-pound champion. His brother, Russ, won the 189-pound title in 2007. Korbul also went over the 100-win mark in the quarterfinals.

104 -- High Point went over the century mark as a program with five winners in District 3. Sophomore Dom Gallo was No. 100 as he led off with a victory in the 106-pound final, followed by Jared Kobis (120), Mike Derin (132), Moses Yasin (160) and Kyle Stoll (195). Derin and Stoll were repeat winners, while Kobis was the fifth freshman since 2008 to win a title for the Wildcats. It's interesting to note that Nos. 1 and 100 were in attendance. Longtime assistant coach Mickey Thomas was the Sussex County school's first district winner in 1968 at 115 pounds. He won a second title in '71. Head coach John Gardner won three titles for the Hillbillies from 1988-90.

9 -- Number of consecutive years for Hopatcong with at least one district champion, as Victor Burgos kept the string alive with a victory at 285 in District 2. Burgos is the 26th winner for coach Eric Fajerman in his 13 seasons with the Chiefs, who missed just once in 2004 during his tenure. The Sussex County school has 69 winners overall since 1973, when Vin Sibilia, Gary Kessel and Bob Valli won the first titles.

It's also the number of Region 1 qualifiers for Lenape Valley, which includes three-time District 2 champion Matt Benvenuto. He's only the fourth three-timer for the Patriots, joining Gary Mikolay (1996-98), Derrick Goduto (1999-2001) and Chris Ressa (1999-2001). Mikolay is currently coaching at Dover, while Goduto is the head man at Cedar Grove. Lenape has now won at least one title for 10 straight years, as sophomores Peter Lipari (120) and Glenn Haines (132) won their first titles for the Pats.

3 -- A lucky number for three Hunterdon County programs that had wrestlers win their third titles in District 17. Delaware Valley's Mike Pongracz, Hunterdon Central's Gary Dinmore (138) and Voorhees' Jadaen Bernstein all struck gold for a third time. Pongracz, who is two wins shy of a school and Hunterdon-Warren record for career wins, is the eighth at Del Val to win three or more titles and the first to do it in non-consecutive seasons -- winning in 2010, '11 and '13. Del Val has crowned at least one champ since moving to this district in 2001 and has produced 40 of its total of 96 in D17. Bernstein is the 11th at his school, which has 107 overall, to win three and helped extend the Vikings' streak with at least one champ to eight straight years. Dinmore helped the Red Devils claim their 33rd district team championship.

12 -- Both High Point and Kittatinny are sending a dozen wrestlers to this week's Region 1 Tournament at Wallkill Valley -- the most among the 34 schools in the tournament.

No comments:

Post a Comment