This past Tuesday night’s Region 7 Pre-Quarterfinals at Eastern brought on mixed emotions for the Northern Burlington Regional High School boys’ varsity wrestling coach Tony Trongone.
By:Sean Moylan
Because while Coach Trongone was extremely happy to see Mike Brewer (103) and Ryan Buchanan (145) both win their respective matches, losses by Buddy Star (125), Matt Van Sciver (160) and Ray Apice (189) really stung. Northern’s Rob McMullen (130) and Tyler Bunting (140) had already previously qualified for the Regions by both winning District 25 titles. Now four Greyhounds remain for this weekend’s Regional VII Tournament at Eastern.
At 103, Mike Brewer withstood a couple of tough stall calls to defeat Collingwood’s Jason Dorlander 6-4. Brewer had a nice take down in the match.
Just a freshman, Ryan Buchanan displayed the savvy of a well-tested veteran in beating Audubon’s 145-pounder Jordan Steel. "Ryan Buchanan just does not quit," said Coach Trongone. "He was winning 5-1, he got cradled twice. Then he got a take down to win 8-5."
Even though Buddy Starr lost, the match itself, was probably the most pivotal and important one of his career thus far. Starr was edged 8-6.
"Buddy lost a tough match. It was a learning experience. Buddy learned if you keep going after a kid, you’ll score," noted Coach Trongone. "Buddy (Starr) has the genetic makeup to be a star."
Starr is halfway there already, and even a tough loss to Haddonfield’s Nick Bernetich can’t dampen all Starr has accomplished this season.
Matt Van Sciver lost his match at 160, but managed to make Coach Trongone very proud, nonetheless. Van Sciver took down Camden Catholic’s Nichols three times to take an early lead. A couple of questionable stalling calls against Van Sciver evened the score at 5-5, though. With the score deadlocked, Nichols flipped Van Sciver and earned a fast pinfall count.
"It was bang-bang( the match’s final move)," said Northern’s fine head coach.
"What I like is he (Van Sciver) wrestled to win." Van Sciver had Nichols in a bodylock when Nichols made the winning move with 20 seconds left in the bout.
NBC’s Ray Apice got stuck wrestling Cherokee’s Dustin Roach, easily one of the area’s finest 189-pounders. Still, Roach needed to pull out everything in his arsenal to beat Apice, 4-3. They don’t call Apice "The Animal" for going down quietly.
"He’s (Roach) real tough," said Coach Trongone, who was hoping Apice would get a better slot.
Now, the top eight wrestlers in each weight class will be re-seeded for Region VII action starting on Friday night at Eastern. Coach Trongone is hoping for Brewer to get a favorable seed because he has already defeated a few of the grapplers who’ll be competing. McMullen and Bunting should do well at the Regions. However, Buchanan is so tough that he never stops coming. He’ll be hard to beat, too. And Brewer is starting to make believers out of a lot of people. The drama continues.
