VERONICA YANKOWSKI Middletown South High School’s Dan Fish has North’s Joe Bisking in a hold in the 171-pound weight class on Saturday.
It’s all a matter of perception. At first glance, this year’s Middletown North High School wrestling team appears to be an experienced group with as many as eight seniors in the varsity lineup, including five grapplers who won district championships last season.
Look closer, however, and you’d think this was a very young team, short on varsity experience, with three freshmen and three more sophomores in the lineup.
Both perceptions are correct. The Lions have a nice mix of talent led by a veteran core of wrestlers and some young, but promising underclassmen.
So it’s no surprise that Middletown North opened the 2001-2002 season to mixed reviews, splitting its first four dual meets. After a pair of tough losses, the Lions have bounced back to win their last two matches, including an impressive 50-12 victory over rival Middletown South on Saturday before a large crowd at North’s gym.
"We always draw good crowds when we wrestle them, and it’s always been a good match," Middletown North coach John Marotta said. "Two years ago it came down to the heavyweight match and they beat us, and last year it also came down to heavyweight and we won.
"This year we had a little more experience than they did, and a lot of our young guys did very well. They came to win."
Last year’s win over their neighbors propelled the Lions to an 11-6 season, a complete turnaround from the previous year when they went 6-11 in Marotta’s first season as head coach. Last season he led Middletown North to a second-place finish in District 22, while the Lions qualified for the Shore Conference tournament for the first time in years.
Marotta thinks his third season can be even better. "I see us definitely improving over last year. I hope we do, anyway," he said.
"We started out slow this season, but now we’re wrestling better and I think we should do even better in the Shore Conference than we did last year and come in with a higher seed in the tournament."
One reason for Marotta’s optimism is the return to the lineup of senior heavyweight Anthony Valasa, a three-year varsity wrestler and the district champion at 275 pounds last year who recently got into wrestling shape following the football season.
"We finally got him down to weight, and with him in the lineup we’ve won our last two matches," Marotta said. "We didn’t have him in our first two matches and we had to give up six points. We started out 0-2, but we could have won both matches with him."
Valasa was only one of six Lions to win district championships last season, and only one of them graduated, Dan Ling at 152, who also finished fourth at the regionals.
Meanwhile, Derek Torchia, Ryan Oswin, Pat Cross and Joe Bisking are four more seniors who are in their third year wrestling varsity. Torchia, who won the 112-pound district title last season, has moved up to 119 this season, while Cross, who captured top honors at 145 and then finished fourth in the region, is now at 152 and won by pin on Saturday.
Bisking also won the districts at 171 and has returned at the same weight this season, while Oswin, the 130-pound champ, has moved up two classes to 140 where he is 9-0 so far, including championships at the Neptune Classic and the Middletown South Christmas Tournament.
His ninth win was a pin on Saturday.
"Ryan is one of the major leaders on the team. He’s very vocal," Marotta said. "He works out all year round, too. He knows what it takes."
Then there’s Josh Hansen, yet another senior and three-year wrestler who was a district runner-up last season at 140 pounds and is at 145 this season, where he won by a technical fall against Middletown South.
"He started out slow this season, but he’s wrestled better his last couple of matches," Marotta said.
Ryan Miller, a senior in his second season of varsity, has moved up from 152 to 160, where, Marotta said, "he’s definitely improved since last year."
Another second-year varsity wrestler is junior Chris D’Arpa, who returned at 215 pounds and recorded a decision on Saturday. He’ll share the weight class with Mark Fields, a first-year senior who Marotta recruited from the football team.
"He’s doing all right for his first year," the coach said. "He should have been with us the last few seasons. He realizes that now."
The rest of the lineup is made up of freshmen and sophomores, but the Lions don’t lack any talent or experience in those weight classes. One of them is sophomore Max Fix, who took third in the districts at 125 pounds as a freshman and is now at 130 where he won by pin against Middletown South.
Another sophomore with promise is 112-pounder Bill Donovan, who wrestled varsity at 103 as a freshman last season. Against Middletown South he scored a 6-4 decision.
"And he beat a kid who he lost to at the Christmas tournament," Marotta said.
A third sophomore is Andrew Stegner, who returned to 189 pounds after wrestling there as a freshman, and also scored a decision on Saturday.
"He’s another kid who got a lot of experience last year and it’s starting to show," Marotta said.
Also winning by a decision at 103 pounds was freshman Mark Baker, who, while new to high school wrestling, gained a lot of mat experience in the middle school and youth wrestling programs.
"And that experience is what’s helping him this season," Marotta said. "He’s starting to wrestle very well."
Two more freshmen in the lineup are Mike Ricardi at 125 pounds and Ben Hockin at 130. Ricardi won by pin against Middletown South.
"Mike doesn’t have much experience yet, but he’s picked it up real quick," Marotta said. "Plus he’s done some martial arts which has helped him a lot. He has good balance.
"And Ben has wrestled for a number of years in the youth programs in town and is doing very well," he added.
The same can be said of the entire Middletown North team, young wrestlers and veterans alike.
"I think the sophomores are going to be the key to a lot of our matches this season," Marotta said. "We still have some tough division matches coming up against Howell and Manalapan, two teams ranked in the top 20 in the state. But we should do well this season, and we’re looking to win the district championship after coming in second last year. That’s one of our goals."