By: Sean Moylan
The Hunterdon Central Tournament is considered by many to be the second toughest holiday wrestling tournament in New Jersey.
Yet the Northern Burlington County Regional High School wrestling team didn’t just prove it belonged at last Wednesday’s all-day event, it proved it’s still one of the elite teams in New Jersey.
The Greyhounds had eight grapplers reach the quarterfinals, yet none was as impressive as Geoff "All Day" Bauma, who beat Holy Cross’ Victor Sierra, 9-3, to take the tournament title at 145 pounds.
"He didn’t have a close match," said NBC Coach Jule Dolci of Bauma. "He was phenomenal. How good he looked last year . . . he was even more dominating."
Bauma went 4-0 in the tournament to improve his overall record to 6-2. Amazingly, Bauma has eight decisions already and NBC didn’t have its first scheduled regular season match until yesterday (Thursday) against Burlington Township.
Al Wonesh, NBC’s star 152-pounder, tried out some new moves and techniques during his matches and he still managed to go 3-1 and take home third place.
"Al’s a tough, tough kid. I’m sure he’s going to come back (stronger). He beat a state place winner."
135-pounder Chris McMullen won two out of his three matches to grab fourth place at Hunterdon Central.
"He (McMullen) wrestled very well," said Dolci.
Matched up against some stellar competition at 140, NBC’s Steve Makuka posted a 1-2 mark while Mike Shea was 1-2 (for 6th place) at 171.
Although Dolci readily admits the team’s major strength is in the middle weight divisions, he has been extremely happy with the constant improvement of his upper weight classes.
"We’re young up top, but as of right now our upper weights have been the most surprising (in a good way)," said Dolci.
In fact, R.J. "The Giant Killer" Melton was a major bright spot for NBC at 215 with a 2-1 record, which earned him fifth place overall.
John "Let’s get Ready to Rumble" Humble wrestled very well at 275, despite posting a 1-2 mark. Kristian "Knuckles" Morris looked very good at 189 (he was 1-2).
Josh "Buzz Saw" verity was 1-3 at 103, Brian Van Sciver was 1-3 at 112 and Greg Bauma was 0-2 at 130.
On the surface those records may not seem impressive, however, the Greyhounds were going up against competition one doesn’t usually see until the State Tournament.
"These tournaments are like wrestling all-star teams," added Dolci. "I’m happy with our performance."
At the junior varsity level, freshman Josh Ploof, a transfer student, won the 140-pound title for his Greyhounds.
"He (Ploof) wrestled very, very well," said Dolci.
NBC is so young and strong that Brian Matey had previously taken the 171-pound junior varsity title at the Jackson Tournament.
"I think this is the deepest team we’ve ever had," added Dolci.
That’s saying something given the great teams NBC has had over the past decade.
NBC is scheduled at Hightstown on Saturday.

