When young wrestlers face a barrage of great teams, they can sink or swim.

Morris Hills has chosen to swim.

Coach Brian Bollette lined up one of the Morris-Sussex area’s most brutal schedules with the likes of Mount Olive, Caldwell, Delaware Valley and High Point. 

The Scarlet Knights took their beatings but showed that they are turning the corner last week in a 40-30 win over Kittatinny.

It was the second time in three years that Bollette’s team has beaten his alma mater.

“Our kids are starting to turn the corner,” Bollette said. “We had a really tough opening.”

The team ventured to the season-opening Robin Leff Tournament at Southern Regional against the likes of Southern, Delsea, Mount Olive, Camden Catholic, High Point, North Hunterdon, Paramus Catholic, St. Augustine, and West Essex.

If the Kittatinny victory is any indication, it appears as though Morris Hills wrestlers have chosen to fight on. 

Things began taking shape at the Linn Crawn Tournament at Kittatinny, where Morris Hills finished ahead of the host Cougars. 

“That’s when we knew we had a chance,” Bollette said. “The kids are buying in. The young kids are turning the corner from middle school to high school.”

In the Kittatinny match, Morris Hills lost the first weight class by pin at 120 but then won four of the next five weights and never looked back.

At 126, Brody Frank tecked Callum Trilling, 22-6 (5:09) and Josh Levin (132) followed with a 17-2 (4:10) technical fall over Nikolas Martinez to give the Scarlet Knights a 10-6 lead.

The wins by Frank and Levin were significant because they came over Kittatinny wrestlers who qualified for the regions last year.

But the big wins kept coming for Morris Hills that night.

Ethan Smolinski (138) followed with a pin over Dylan Tighe in 4:59 in what was a close match at the time and Andrew Mucci (144) followed by flattening Justin Bradley in 1:53 to make it 22-6.

At 157, Jack Wans – wrestling in his first varsity match – pinned Kittatinny’s George Hanlon in 2:19, giving Morris Hills a 28-9 lead.

At 190, Morris Hills’ James Cortese beat Samuel Ramos, 7-1. At the Kittatinny Tournament, Cortese absorbed a 4-1 loss to Ramos.

“James made some small adjustments to his feet, working on him on his own system,” Bollette said. “He a sophomore and getting used to varsity. He working our system for big guys and trying to make some adjustments. That was a big win for him.”

At 215, Morris Hills’ Matthew Ochoa beat Trevor Greenwood, 7-0. Scarlet Knights 103-pounder Dom Lombardi pinned Justin Tighe in 5:14.

It was the second time in three years that Morris Hills has defeated Kittatinny. 

“A lot of this is a mentality where they need to feel they belong, trust in their process, and believe in themselves,” Bollette said.

The win was a personal thrill for Bollette, a 2007 Kittatinny grad who grew in the sport under Kittatinny’s legendary coach John Gill, who has been leading the Cougars for 45 years.

“Coach Gill has taught me more about wrestling, coaching, teaching, leadership, and life than I can explain,” Bollette said. “He has been a mentor to me not only since I’ve been a head coach, but my entire life. I’ve known Gill since I was a toddler and my brothers wrestled for him. 

“Most importantly, I learned from Gill that every kid in the program is important, and that building culture makes a program sustainable. More than anything else, Gill has always tried to help the kids in his program become better people. His influence far exceeds his excellence in coaching, and you don’t have to look to far to find a head coach in our state who has a successful program and wrestled for Coach Gill.”

Morris Hills is still young and prone to rough nights. The team suffered a 52-24 loss to Pope John earlier this week. 

But the win over Kittatinny is a start.

“It gave us a good confidence boost and re-affirmed to us that we are doing the right things,” Bollette said.

Hunterdon-Warren-Sussex lookahead

The Hunterdon-Warren-Sussex Tournament is as loaded as ever, with state contenders galore. 

Hunterdon Central (225 points) took the team title last year, outlasting Phillipsburg (220), Delaware Valley (181 ½) and Kittatinny (139).

Returning champions (last year’s weight in parenthesis): Jake Holly, Pope John (106), Dalton Weber, Pope John (126), Carson Walsh, Pope John (132), Luke Galeta, Phillipsburg (144), Gavin Hawk, Phillipsburg (150).

Best weights: The expected 144-pound final should between P-Burg’s Luke Geleta and Pope John’s Donny Almeyda. Throw in Lenape Valley’s talented Gage Graziano and that is one strong weight. Kittatinny’s Ethan Dalling is the favorite at 175 but North Hunterdon’s Evan Kinney is another terrific wrestler at that weight.

Here are my weight-by-weight predictions:

106-Cayden Wadle (North Hunterdon).

113-Anthony Pettinelli (Phillipsburg).

120-Dave Szamreta (Warren Hills).

126-Jaden Perez (Delaware Valley).

132-Dalton Weber (Pope John).

138-Carson Walsh (Pope John).

144-Luke Geleta (Phillipsburg).

150-Rhett Washleski (Hunterdon Central).

157-Gavin Hawk (Phillipsburg).

165-Oliver Paul (Delaware Valley).

175-Ethan Dalling (Kittatinny).

190-True DiGiuseppe (Vernon).

215-Kyle Blew (Belvidere).

285-Gavin Mericle (High Point).

Team title: Phillipsburg.

District shakeups

You’ve heard of people winning the lottery? Well, in the world of North Jersey high school wrestling, some schools won the lottery when it came to what we’ll call the district shuffle. And some schools lost.

Some schools (and their wrestlers) can celebrate their great fortune of not having a single Catholic school (and its wealth of great wrestlers in almost every weight class) placed in their district this year.

Some public schools, meanwhile, had a behemoth parachute into their district. 

So with that, here are some winners and losers of the semi-annual district/region shuffle.

Winner: P-Burg. The Stateliners were placed in District 1 and are linked mostly with soft Bergen County public schools and Jefferson. I don’t even have to look too hard to see P-Burg should come out with 10-11 district champions, easy.

Losers: Kittatinny, Newton, North Warren, Sparta, Vernon, Wallkill. The host Cougars and other Sussex schools have behemoth Bergen Catholic dumped on their laps in District 3.  

Winner: Jefferson. See P-Burg. Falcons should have a nice run at the districts.

Losers: Madison, Randolph and Mendham are in the same District 9 as Delbarton, which could well sweep first place in all of the weight classes.

Winners: High Point, Butler, Kinnelon, Pequannock. The locals have the good fortune of not having a Catholic school titan placed in District 4 at West Essex.

Winners: Mount Olive. The Marauders should steamroll everyone in an ultra-soft District 6.

Toughest schedule award

Mount Olive’s schedule is one of the toughest public-school slates around. Mustang Classic at Brick Memorial, Warren Hills (Dec. 18), P-Burg (Dec. 21), Council Rock Tournament (Jan. 18), Hunterdon Central (Feb. 4), to go with an arduous NJAC-American slate that includes Delbarton (Jan. 9), Pope John (Jan. 21), and Morris Hills (Dec. 18).

Christmas Tournament takeaways

We’re a week late (long story), but here are some Christmas Tournament takeaways.

1. Delbarton’s Jayden James was third in the state two years ago and second last year. He is making a serious bid to win it this year, as evidenced by his overpowering performance at the stacked Powerade tournament in Pennsylvania. He wound up overwhelming his opponents by a combined score of 84-16, with most of his points allowed coming on escapes.

How good is James looking? Well, well-respected Green Wave coach Bryan Stoll, who’s seen quite a few standouts during his 20-year career at the school, said James has the chance to be one of the best Delbarton has ever had.   

2. Mount Olive showed tremendous depth and balance by winning the team title at the Mustang Classic at Brick Memorial. The Marauders (106) led the way over runnerup Camden Catholic (78), Caldwell (68) and Brick Memorial (61). Olive’s Nico Gonzalez (215) won his weight and the quartet of Anthony Piemonte (126), Brandon Beres (138), Justin Bullock (150) and Tyler Cumming (190) placed second.

3. West Morris’ Tommy Borgia won his weight at the John Goles Tournament and is one of the best heavyweights in all of New Jersey. He had three first-period pins, including a 39-second fall over Ramapo’s Jonah Smith to win the weight. But keep an eye on Wolfpack 138-pounder Jacob Harrison, who beat top-seeded Adam Ramadan of Kearny, 8-6, to win his weight. Ramadan was sixth in Region 3 last year.

“Harrison has not stopped wrestling since last season,” coach Chris Marold said. “He did tons of tournaments and club practices.”

4. Montville had a great showing at the Linn Crawn Tournament at Kittatinny. The Mustangs (178 ½) placed second (behind New York state’s Minisink Valley, which begins wrestling practice much earlier than New Jersey schools). The Mustangs were led by champions Luke Manieri (113) and Michael Frank (126) as well as runnerups Rylan Jones (132), Hossain Fallah (165) and Sean Elsmore (215).“Our wrestlers have been extremely active in the off-season,” coach Brian Kapral said. “They have spent a lot of time in their clubs and at off season tournaments.”