By: Neil Hay
Some matches Wednesday night were close and up for grabs by either side. Others, though, were decidedly one-sided.
But, truthfully, Steinert was the better team, easily defeating the visiting Hightstown wrestlers by a 55-15 final score.
The loss evened the Rams’ record at 1-1.
"55-15 sounds pretty bad," said coach Mike Russo. "But there were three or four matches that could have gone either way. It still wouldn’t have made a difference" in the outcome, admitted Russo.
The match began with Rams’ Brandon Tyers winning by forfeit. Then it went downhill as the Spartans won the next seven weight classes.
First the Spartans Tom Bartlett edged Alick Wong 8-7, at 112.
"Alick wrestled pretty well. I thought he should have won" but the referee chose not to award any points for a late takedown which was ruled to have occurred after the final buzzer. At 119 Jennings pinned Chris Crawford in 2:33. At 125 the Spartans Brian Gregorowicz defeated Dave Tossie, 13-7.
"Tossie is one of our most improved guys. He has come a long way."
Steinert picked up a pin at 130. Next up was Greg Badessa, who defeated the Rams’ Chris Zullo 10-1 at 135.
At 140 Tim Donovan of Steinert pinned Dan Stibol in 2:37. That was followed by Mark Renault’s 3:15 pin over Hightstown’s Scott Cupples at 145.
Oscar Moreno of Hightstown finally stemmed the tide when he doubled up Vince Ingraffia 12-6 at 152. The Rams made it two straight when Paul Reyes pinned Matt Gregorowicz in 4:51 at 160.
"Reyes wrestled really well," said Russo. "He pinned one of their better guys. The main reason he won was his conditioning. He stepped it up in a tight match. He was the aggressor. He is realizing he is one of our better wrestlers."
The Rams’ brief run was ended at 171 when Mark O’Neil pinned Rob Kovsky in 4:49. Paul Gellerman of Steinert then edged Rich Freeman 7-6 at 189.
"Freeman should have won. He came so close to getting a pin. He should have gotten back points late in the match. He was the aggressor," said Russo.
If you blinked, chances are you would have missed the final two bouts. At 215 Ken Weeden of Steinert pinned Ben Melone in 29 seconds. Then Spartan heavyweight Farid Syed put Joe Ortiz on his back in nine seconds.
Hightstown’s next match is Saturday morning against Ewing at home.
