Phillipsburg High School wins big at NJSIAA state wrestling championships

Monday, February 16, 2009

By NICK FIERRO

The Express-Times

TOMS RIVER, N.J. | Phillipsburg High School ended a four-year run of near-misses, heartbreakers and late arrivals on Sunday by pouncing on a pair of overmatched opponents at the Ritacco Center to win the NJSIAA Group 3 state wrestling title.

The Stateliners (22-2) did it by first bouncing Hammonton out of the semifinals with a 56-10 victory, then beating Montville by an even more overwhelming margin of 52-6 in the final.

North Hunterdon, which also made it to this venue as the surprise North 2 Group 4 champ, was not as fortunate and was eliminated by Brick Memorial, 32-21, in the semifinals.

Phillipsburg won its 16th group title, second most of all time behind Paulsboro, which won its 26th championship on Sunday.

Coach Jason Magditch could not have been more pleased.

"You look at some of the matchups," he said. "I mean 112 (pounds), that kid (Montville's Mike Polizzi) beat (Kevin) Churchill from Newton (before losing to Rylan Watson, 5-2) and his record was real good. Some of their records were very flattering and our guys wrestled great.

"But it has to do with our environment, it has to do with workouts, with our schedule. When you're wrestling a Phillipsburg kid now, a kid that might have nine losses on our schedule, he's going to be just as tough as guys on some of these other teams with two or three losses, just because of the competition. And I think that showed tonight in how good they performed. I was happy with them all."

Unlike last season, when a nervous squad emerged from a late-arriving bus that wound up in Camden before the driver finally found his way to Toms River, the Stateliners were jacked from the moment they stepped into this venue and it showed when senior Nick Pare opened the semifinals with a 23-second pin of Anthony Morrone at 145 pounds.

Fittingly, Pare also started the championship match with a quick pin, flattening Vinnie Lizza in 49 seconds at 152.

For those keeping score at home, that's 72 seconds of spectacular mat time, a good bit less than classmate Matt Santini, who first pinned Hammonton's Kevin Hernandez in 3:25 before doing the same to Montville's Rob Tancer in 3:12 at 215.

"I could just tell we were going to be great today because of everybody's intensity," Santini said. "I mean, this was our last dual meet as a full team. We're a close-knit team and we were going to go all-out for today and I knew it. I had a good feeling about it."

Santini and his teammates were able to accomplish all their goals, which included limiting both opponents to 10 points or fewer while scoring at least 50 themselves.

In fact, they lost only five of 28 bouts before finishing their championship match in time to watch Long Branch make a case for being No. 1 overall in New Jersey by finishing off David Brearley for the Group 2 crown on an adjacent mat.

Phillipsburg beat Long Branch earlier this season but was upset by Brearley less than a week before sectionals began and also lost at home to High Point, which was not allowed to participate in this tournament because it failed to wrestle at least 70 percent of its duals against in-state opponents. High Point also lost to Long Branch.

In the Group 4 semis, the Lions began their match against Brick Memorial auspiciously enough, with Pat Boyle (103) and Eric Waldron (112) each scoring victories on close decisions for a 6-0 advantage. They seemed to be on the verge of adding to that at 119, when Pat Levandowski was on his feet protecting a 6-3 lead over Dave Santos in the third period.

But Santos dropped Levandowski with a cement job and finish off a pin, which served to reverse the momentum for good as the Mustangs went on to win six of the final 11 bouts, two by pins that proved to be the difference.

"I feel bad for Pat and I feel bad that it was such a turning point," North coach Jason Hawk said, "but, you know, that's wrestling. We had a kid the other night do it for us to win, so sometimes you enjoy it and sometimes it stings you."

Nick Fierro can be reached by e-mail at nfierro@express-times.com.