Oglesby, South set for counties
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Brian Oglesby is anxious for his next chance to wrestle in the Mercer County Tournament.
The West Windsor-Plainsboro South junior narrowly missed placing last year at 119 pounds, the latest source of motivation for him in county competition.
”I haven’t placed in the county tournament since fourth grade, even though I did rec and they had county tournaments,” Oglesby said. “I’ve done it for several years, and I haven’t placed since fourth grade. That’s something I want to do before I graduate. I want to do it this year.”
Oglesby and the Pirates gained some momentum heading into the MCT that begins today and continues Saturday at Trenton High when they knocked off Princeton High School, 40-24, Monday for their fifth win of the year. The five wins match last year’s win total.
”I think our team is better this year,” said Oglesby, who is a team captain. “Even though we did lose some close matches to some teams I think we should have beaten, this was a good win for us, especially being a home meet. We needed a win.”
The Pirates have lost by four points twice this season and nine on two other occasions, including Wednesday in a 41-32 loss to Steinert. It was close early on with the Little Tigers on Monday, but the Pirates fought for some tight wins that made the difference.
”It’s not the big guys,” said Pirates head coach Jesse Palermo. “It’s those close matches that you grind out. You scrape by, and that’s what makes the difference in the long run.”
Oglesby picked up a win at his new weight, 125, and the Pirates gained big momentum from key close decisions from Kory Beach at 119 pounds, Thomas Loury at 140 pounds and the biggest, a reversal with one second left to give Andy Gonzalez a win at 130 pounds.
”We won all the close matches that we needed to,” Oglesby said. “We needed those matches to win.”
Said Palermo: “We’ve scored in dual meets 398 points and our opponents 394. We have a losing record, but we’ve actually outscored our opponents. The talent is there, we just have to start working on scraping by those close matches to get those hard wins.”
Monday’s win was a good start. They were missing a regular starter, Alfonso Gonzalez, due to injury. WW-P South hopes to have him back for the county meet after they responded to the Little Tigers’ challenge without him.
PHS pulled within 22-18 with four matches to go after Calvin Brasor recorded a pin a 171 pounds. The Pirates, who had bumped more than half of their lineup up, got a forfeit win at 189, then back-to-back pins from Liam Kiernan, their usual 189-pounder, at 215 and heavyweight David Calves before PHS’ Ian Snyder ended the match with a pin win at 103 pounds.
”One thing that I’ve noticed throughout the season,” Palermo said, “is our ‘weaker weight classes’ have gotten stronger. Our 189-pounder (Kiernan), he’s a second-year wrestler and he started out the year really not doing well at all. Now he’s 9-5 and leads our team in pins. I think he’s won all but one by pin.”
That sort of progress from their less experienced wrestlers and a quartet of returning MCT place-winners give the Pirates promise for this year’s MCT.
”We have a few guys who should place better than they did last year,” Oglesby said. “Hopefully, we make a better showing than last year.
”I had a fluke loss to a kid I should have beaten. I don’t think I’ll let that happen this year.”
Oglesby has been one of the steadiest wrestlers for the Pirates. His win Monday was followed by a win by pin against Steinert to improve to 12-5 overall. He had won eight of nine matches following a fourth-place finish at the East Brunswick Invitational before dropping a pair last week.
”His conditioning is far better than last year,” Palermo said. “He’s self-motivated, which is really hard to do as a young kid. He’s a junior. He’s a captain and he’s stepped it up big time. He works hard on conditioning and technique. His intensity on the mat is second to none. He is by far the most intense wrestler out there. He will not lay down for anybody. He grinds. I like to see that. That kind of attitude is contagious.”
An intense competitor, Oglesby is looking forward to the chance for him and his teammates to avenge some of their narrow defeats when they see some familiar Colonial Valley Conference foes at the MCT.
”I think that’s going to motivate us when we go into counties,” he said. “You want to beat those kids that you lost to in the regular season. I think that’ll help us finish a little higher if we can beat the kids we lost to.”
Oglesby believes that being an older and more experienced wrestler is another advantage for him. He may not have jumped far in weight classes, but he has grown plenty in how he wrestles.
”Being smarter and not making stupid mistakes that would make me lose last year,” he said of his changes. “I’m being smarter, and controlling the time and knowing the score and knowing what to do.”
Oglesby and the Pirates know just what has to be done to finish where they want to at the MCT.
”The key is one match at a time and recovery,” Palermo said. “You have to win however you can. You win by pin, you win by one point, you’re still going on to the next round. Recovery is a big one too. You have to rehydrate, rest and refocus yourself for the next match. We wrestled a tournament earlier this year with about half our lineup and had four place finishers, so we’re hoping to have a better showing than last year when we had four place finishers at counties. I thought it was a great performance. Hopefully we can repeat that.
”Counties,” he added, “is a great experience to get out there and have fun and see how high you can place, take that experience and channel it into districts. That’s when you have to win or go home.”
Brian Oglesby hopes it’s not empty-handed this time. He wants a county medal.