By Rudy Brandl, The Packet Group
Lawrence High’s young wrestlers learned about the mental and physical rigors of tough competition in last weekend’s Mercer County Tournament at Trenton Central High School.
Senior 160-pounder Sean Pearson and sophomore 130-pounder Tommy O’Rourke were the only Cardinals in the field who competed in the MCT last winter. The other 10 Lawrence wrestlers are first-year starters still getting their feet wet.
The Cardinals entered the tourney on a two-match win streak, having captured exciting home victories in a tri-meet with Princeton and West Windsor Plainsboro South. It didn’t take long for them to realize that tournament wrestling presents a whole different challenge. The MCT offers wrestle-back rounds for third and fifth place, so many Cardinals competed in multiple bouts on Saturday’s second day of action.
”They’re young and they have to mature in the wrestling world,” LHS head coach Chris Lynne said. “Other than Tommy and Sean, it was their first Mercer County Tournament. It’s tough when you lose in a tournament. When that happens, the question is who will rebound and win in the next round. You only have 45 minutes to regroup.”
Pearson (19-4) was the only Lawrence wrestler who didn’t compete in a consolation bracket. The second-seeded Lawrence star advanced to the finals by pinning Princeton’s Marc Santiago at 3:09 in Friday night’s quarterfinals and edging Hopewell Valley’s Travis Gerstacker in a 3-2 decision in Saturday morning’s semifinals.
In a rematch of last year’s third-place bout which Pearson won, the LHS senior was stopped by Steinert’s Joe Benedetti via fall at 3:32. Benedetti beat Pearson in a dual meet last winter after the MCT and won the rubber match Saturday.
”I was hoping to win, but I’m happy with how I did,” Pearson said. “Second place is still good in the Mercer County Tournament.”
Benedetti (18-2) scored a takedown and rode out Pearson in the first period. Pearson, normally able to counter his opponent’s moves, wasn’t able to escape.
”I just went out and took a bad shot,” Pearson said. “He took me down. I was working to get up the rest of the period but he was covering me everywhere I went.”
Benedetti chose the defensive bottom position to start the second period and took a 4-0 lead on a reversal. Pearson tried to counter but got caught on his back for the fall with 28 seconds remaining in the period.
”It was all really quick,” Pearson said. “He got my leg caught behind and it ended up in a turk.”
”They’re wrestled each other so many times, he knew how to counter Sean,” Lynne said. “He took away Sean’s strengths.”
Three of Pearson’s teammates placed in the top five. Junior 152-pounder Gerrayl Bryson (12-6) took fourth and senior 215-pounder Lee Wing Zhou (11-7) and O’Rourke (18-6) finished fifth.
Bryson had the wildest ride of any Cardinal in the two-day tourney. He won two Friday night bouts via fall to reach Saturday’s semifinals. Bryson lost a controversial and high-scoring 17-14 match to Nottingham’s Jon Sanchez and wound up in the consolation bracket.
”Gerrayl had his sights set on the finals,” Lynne said. “Some bad refereeing cost him in the semifinals. He had the kid on his back and they called an illegal headlock. They penalized him one point and didn’t give him the back points. That was tough for him mentally.”
Bryson regrouped to win his consolation semifinal bout with a pin early in the second period but lost a disappointing third-place bout to Matt Doskoczynski of Notre Dame. Bryson pinned Doskoczynski in Friday night’s quarters but lost a 9-3 decision less than 24 hours later.
”It was tough,” Lynne said. “You could see Gerrayl just wasn’t into that match.”
Zhou, who was injured all of last season and missed the first part of this year, made a great showing in his first MCT. He pinned Robbinsville’s AJ Facenda in 1:58 but dropped an exciting 11-10 decision to Ewing’s Pierre Williams in the quarterfinals Friday night.
The LHS senior came back Saturday and won two bouts in the consolation bracket before losing to Hopewell’s Joe Tesauro by a 9-4 margin in the semifinal. Zhou avenged his Friday night loss to Williams by pinning him at 3:43 to claim fifth place.
”Lee Wing had a great weekend,” Lynne said. “He was down 11-3 to that Ewing kid but he came back and had him on his back when the match ended. We were definitely confident when he wrestled him again. He works hard and he’s in great shape. He really showed maturity coming back.”
O’Rourke, the third seed in a monster 130-pound bracket, had trouble recovering from a heartbreaking overtime loss in the semifinals. He reached the semis with a 9-5 win over Ewing’s Andre Dennis in the quarters and faced Nottingham’s Jamone Lyles in Saturday’s semis.
The Lawrence sophomore tied the match at 4-4 on a takedown with 30 seconds left and the Cardinal corner was feeling good about O’Rourke’s chances in overtime. He had the momentum but Lyles took the initiative and scored the winning takedown.
”That was tough for Tommy,” Lynne said. “After he got that takedown to send it into overtime, he wanted to be on his feet. It was tough for him mentally after that semifinal.”
O’Rourke had a one-point lead against Notre Dame’s Josh Merritt in the waning seconds of his first consolation bout but gave up a takedown at the buzzer, so he had to compete for fifth place. He shut down Dennis in a 5-1 decision to finish the tourney on a positive note.
Nine of the 12 Cardinals in the tourney won at least one match. Junior 135-pounder Pat Reven won twice and fell one match short of wrestling for a medal. Freshman 103-pounder Joey Stevens got some revenge with a 13-4 major over a West Windsor South wrestler who had beaten him in a dual meet. Heavyweight Glenn Friedeborn took eventual champ Matt Pagano of Hopewell Valley, the top seed, the distance in a 5-3 loss. Friedeborn battled back with a 26-second pin but had to default in his next match because of a knee injury.
Lawrence finished 12th in the 15-school field with 82 points. Hopewell Valley repeated as county team champions.
”It’s pretty much what I expected,” Lynne said. “We had a lot of young kids who didn’t have .500 records, so they didn’t get seeded. But most of our guys won a match.”
The Cardinals were set to host Allentown Wednesday before competing in a very tough tri-meet vs. Region 5 foes Hunterdon Central, Delaware Valley and Voorhees Saturday. Pearson, a returning district champ and region contender, is looking forward to the challenge.
”It’s going to be a big day for the seeds,” Pearson said. “Hopefully, I can get three wins. You never know who those guys have beaten. It’s a huge day.”
NOTES — Three Lawrence wrestlers placed in last weekend’s JV tournament at Delaware Valley — freshman 135-pounder Ben Kraun, junior 135-pounder John Friedfeld and junior 140-pounder Ian Wolf. Friedfeld and Wolf have also seen varsity action this year but have been locked in tight battles for the No. 1 spot on the depth chart.

