Wrestling squad ready to take on CVC

Lawrence wrestling

By: John E. Powers
   After two productive outings at holiday tournaments, the Lawrence High School wrestling team is ready for its dual meet season.
   The defending Colonial Valley Conference Colonial Division and Mercer County Tournament champions, 15-3 a year ago, were scheduled to play host to Ewing on Wednesday and West Windsor-Plainsboro South at 1:30 p.m. Saturday.
   Coach Chris Lynne’s team did well at the Hunterdon Central Invitational, taking a second with senior Adam Oliszewski (215), a third with senior Matt Friedman (130), a fourth with senior Neal Amato (171) and three fifths from junior Matt Friedeborn (112), junior Alex DeHart (119) and senior Chris Floyd (152).
   "We had more place-winners than we had on a whole last year," Lynne said.
   Oliszewski, second last year, lost to Buena’s Paul Zemanik 5-1 in this year’s final. He also lost to a state tournament place-winner last year. Oliszewski was also second at the Princeton Tournament last month.
   "Adam weighed in at 8 a.m., had a bye into the quarterfinals and didn’t wrestle until 6:30," Lynne said. "It was really a long, long tournament. A long day in general. He had the last match of the whole tournament, which was about 9:30."
   Friedman lost what Lynne referred to as a "violent" semifinal match to Jefferson’s Ken Monarque 6-3 before rebounding for third with a 5-3 win over South Plainfield’s Nick Dorey. Amato was pinned by Haddonfield’s Patrick Hessert, the winner at 171, then lost to Middlesex’s Joe Bozzomo 3-2 for third. Floyd, who lost a 1-0 final at the Princeton tournament, lost to 152-pound winner Zubin Karrimattam of Hunterdon Central 8-5 in the quarterfinals, then came back to win place fifth with two consolation wins. Friedeborn lost a 2-1 decision to South Plainfield’s Billy Ashnault 2-1 in a 112-pound quarterfinal, but came back to win two consolation bouts to place fifth.
   DeHart was another quarterfinal victim — falling to Jefferson’s Jeff Barnett 3-2 — but like Friedeborn and Floyd, rallied for fifth with two consolation wins.
   "Floyd, Friedeborn and Dehart all lost tough matches, but came back to take fifths," Lynne said. "Dehart beat a kid from Toms River East (Matt Frank) who had won a tournament last week."
   The Cardinals wrestled without 135-pounder Jim Farley, who was with his family in Costa Rica, and 145-pounder Derek Parson, who was on a family vacation.
   Jeff Kaplan (112) and Billy Harkins (152) both won junior varsity titles, while Zack Calderone (275), Mike DeLorenzo (160) and Jason Burroughs (189) all placed second in the junior varsity tournament.