Ravens senior wins third MCT, AHS freshman his first
By Bob Nuse, The Packet Group
It was no surprise that Jared Icenhower found himself in the finals at Saturday’s Mercer County Wrestling Tournament.
Jack Mottram on the other hand, well, that’s a different story.
Icenhower, a senior at Robbinsville High School, remained undefeated and captured his third MCT title with a 4-2 win over Josh Medina of Hamilton in the championship match at 125 pounds.
Mottram, a freshman at Allentown High School, upset the No. 2 and No. 1 seeds to take the 103-pound title. In the championship match, Mottram posted a 4-0 win over Darren Basich of Ewing.
”It felt pretty good,” said Icenhower, who improved to 17-0 with his three wins. “I’ve seen (Medina) wrestle before and I knew he was tough. It still feels good. I want to do well all season, but this is big. We still have some matches to go before we start to get ready for the districts. The matches were all tough. The final was tough. He’s a tough kid.”
Icenhower was the only first-place finisher for the Ravens, who finished seventh as a team in the tournament. Other medalists for Robbinsville were David Bossie, who was second at 130, Andrew Reca (third at 152), David Steward (fourth at 145) Christopher Tan (fifth at 103), Tyler Gildner (fifth at 285), and Edward Svarchvsky (sixth at 160).
”I thought overall it was a tough tournament for us,” Robbinsville assistant coach Brian Dempsey said. “I thought a lot of our younger guys did very well. One of the things that we really worked on was just continuing to wrestle. We had those moments (Friday) where we just stopped wrestling and had lapses. I thought we really bounced back today and wrestled pretty well.”
Dempsey was happy to see Icenhower come away with a third title, which is just the first of what the Ravens hope will be many titles this season.
”If anybody deserves it, he’s one of the kids that I think deserves it,” Dempsey said. “He is by far the hardest worker in the room. And outside of our practices he is going and doing things on his own. If anybody deserves it, he deserves it.
”He takes it one match at a time and keeps his focus on the next match. He’s pretty grounded. He doesn’t think too far ahead and likes to keep his focus on the next match ahead of him.”
Mottram took his matches one at a time in his first MCT and wound up in the finals, where he emerged as Allentown’s only individual winner.
”When I came in, I was just hoping for the top five or something like that,” said Mottram, who won his opening match, 8-4, over Anthony Wiltsey of Hightstown. “Getting first was a surprise. I thought my match in the quarters was pretty tough and when I won that, I thought maybe I could actually do something in the tournament.”
Mottram followed up his win in the quarterfinals with a 4-3 win over No. 2 seed Jackson Place of Hopewell before knocking off Basich in the final.
”This kid beat me earlier in the year in overtime,” Mottram said of his earlier match with Basich. “That was good match. I kind of redeemed myself this time. I knew it would be a close match. It was close right to the end until I got my three backs.”
The win helped the Redbirds to a second-place overall finish, just 19 points behind Hopewell Valley.
”I’m real pleased,” Allentown coach Larry Kimport said. “This is my third year as head coach and the last two years we were down around 10th or 11th. It was nice to be in the same company as a program like Hopewell Valley, which is a perennially strong wrestling team.”
The Redbirds put four wrestlers in the finals, with James Cocorles falling at 171, Frank Juba at 215, and Taylor Maul at 145 when he was forced to forfeit due to injury.
”We had some kids who made really big strides,” Kimport said. “James Cocorles certainly made the biggest strides to get to the finals at 171. He is coming off seasons of something like 5-20 and 6-19 and suddenly he is on a winning streak to get all the way to the finals.”
The best effort of the day came from Mottram, who picked up a title in his first MCT.
”I thought he could land in the top three if he did everything smart,” Kimport said. “The nice thing about it was that he avenged a loss from earlier in the season. He got beat by that kid in double overtime, so this was a nice strong win.”
Allentown also picked up a third place from Sam Shonk at 140, a fourth from Lenny Gigantino at 125, a fourth from Alec Rugo at 160, and fifth from Justin Duffy at 119.
”You have to give credit to all the kids who wrestled and got thirds and fourths and fifths because those points add up in the end,” Kimport said of the Redbirds’ effort to finish second. “That’s what the plaque is all about. It’s how the whole team does.”

