There is a list of district champions on the wall in the Mount Olive wrestling room– and it now includes Thomas McDonald.
The 144-pound sophomore overcame Montville’s top-seeded Alex Rodriguez and won his weight with a 7-5 come-from-behind decision at District 5 at Morris Knolls Saturday.
“Getting my name on that wall … that was in my head the whole match,” McDonald said.
McDonald was one of nine Marauders to win the district. All of them will earn first-round byes at Region 2, which will begin Friday night at Mount Olive and run through Saturday. District second- and third-place finishers will compete in the preliminaries Friday night.
Mount Olive rolled up 290 points to win its eighth straight district crown. The Marauders sent 13 wrestlers to the regions and totaled nine champions, two second-place finishers and two thirds.
Cedar Grove (165 ½) finished second, one point ahead of Morris Hills (164 ½). Montville (157) was fourth.
McDonald first-round bye was earned in that very wrestling room where a lot of battles have been fought. Day after day, McDonald spends his days fighting off Colin Smyth and many others.
Things can get awfully gruesome in there – but when the mission is winning, you put up with the aches and pains.
“Colin beats the hell out of me,” McDonald said. “But it makes me better.”
The daily grind came in handy against Rodriguez. McDonald’s third-period takedown put him ahead for good.
McDonald (25-12) never backs away from a battle. In the state Group 4 championship match last week, he trailed Toms River East’s Damian Vanderlinden, 2-0, but stormed back to win, 6-4.
He has benefitted tremendously from Mount Olive’s rugged schedule, which has included the Robin Leff Tournament (Southern Regional), Mustang Classic (Brick Memorial), Escape the Rock (Pa.,) and duals against such schools as Southern and Phillipsburg on the way to winning Group IV.
“I’ll drill with someone like Colin,” McDonald said. “He is a powerhouse. But if I can at least hang with him, that makes me better. Then, I’ll go and wrestle someone at a lighter weight and it makes me think, ‘I know I can beat them.’”
McDonald and the rest of the wrestlers in the Marauders room has lifted up Smyth, whose clutch reversal at the buzzer enabled him to capture an 8-6 victory over Montville’s Michael Frank to win the district at 150.
Another big Mount Olive winner was 215-pounder Nicolas Gonzalez, who pinned Montville’s Sean Zamota in 28 seconds and became the school’s first four-time district champion.
Other Marauder champions included:
- Cole Rebels (120), who pinned Cedar Grove’s Anthony Sheridan in 53 seconds.
- Kristian Beres (126), who won by disqualification over Morris Knolls’ Vincent DeSomma.
- Anthony Piemonte (132), who majored Morris Hills’ Josh Levin, 9-0.
- Scott Coppolo (157), who beat Cedar Grove’s Pierce Asfalg, 5-4.
- Justin Bullock (165), who won by technical fall over Mountain Lakes’ Nick Drake, 17-2 (3:07).
- Jared Martini (285), who beat Montville’s Alex Husti, 8-1.
HERE AND THERE
1. Morris Hills’ Andrew Mucci wrestled beautifully on his feet with three takedowns, with the third one putting Cedar Grove’s top-seeded Richie Galioto to his back for back points in the second period, on the way to a 13-3 major to win at 138.
“I go for the front head to a high crotch and I work from that,” Mucci said. “I don’t do things I am not comfortable with. Whatever you feel comfortable with is what you should do.”
Mucci received applause that seemed a little louder than usual because the Scarlet Knights wrestling community is pretty tight. Everyone is in it together, so everyone roots for everyone else. There is a lot of camaraderie.
“We do different stuff like clubs and wrestle in tournaments and we do a lot of things together,” Mucci said.
Hills has one more big tournament to get through – Region 2 at Mount Olive next weekend – before the biggest tournament of all, the states at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City March 12-14.
“I wrestled well in the sectionals and I’m feeling pretty confident,” Mucci said.
2. Morris Knolls’ Luke Shivas and Mount Olive’s Stephen Hayek have a nice rivalry going at 175 pounds – and they could be in for another war with a state tournament berth at stake at the regions.
Shivas won Round 3 with a takedown with just a few seconds left in overtime to win the district championship, 4-1.The two had split two previous engagements.
The two showed how tight they are in the district finals before Shivas pulled it out.
“The whole match … I felt like I was shooting the whole time,” said Shivas, who won his district last year. “My gameplan was to go 110 percent the entire time. In OT, I knew he was tired from defending my shots, so I wanted to set up my shot.”
Shivas and Hayek figure to be in the mix in a strong 175-pound weight class at Region 2, which will also include the likes of Passaic Valley’s William Capizzi, Bergen Catholic’s A.J. DiGiovanni, and Roxbury’s Nolan Monaghan, among others.
“I’m figuring I’m getting a No. 3 seed,” Shivas said. “Getting to the states is something I’ve worked hard for all year.”
