Ken Weingartner

By: centraljersey.com
Lucas DelPiano failed to reach the podium at the NJSIAA Wrestling Tournament last weekend in Atlantic City, but it was not for lack of effort or talent.
At the state tourney, held in Boardwalk Hall, the South Brunswick High senior 189-pounder won his preliminary match against Wall’s Colin Egan before falling to eventual champion James Fox of St. Peter’s Prep, who ended the season 42-0, and eighth-place finisher Connor Gabriel of Roselle Park.
DelPiano lost 7-5 to Gabriel after falling into an early 5-0 hole.
"We had a shot," South Brunswick coach Joe Dougherty said. "We threw him to his back but he was out of bounds. We didn’t have an opportunity to pull him back in. We were trying to pull him back and they called us out (of bounds). But we were in."
"Lucas had a great season. We lost to Fox, which everyone else did too. We were right there. He had the talent to place, but it didn’t work out. But he did a lot of good things."
DelPiano finished the season with a 33-9 record. Of those nine losses, eight were to state qualifiers and six came against state place-winners, including four to Highland Park’s Tyler Rios (two in overtime; all four by two points or less). Rios finished fourth in the state tourney.
In addition, DelPiano avenged a loss to Greater Middlesex Conference champ Julian Quintan of Perth Amboy by beating him 3-1 for the District 20 title.
DelPiano was among four district champions for the Vikings, who enjoyed one of the greatest seasons in Dougherty’s Hall of Fame tenure.
South Brunswick set the school record for wins in a season, going 21-4. The Vikings won their fourth District 20 team championship and finished second in the GMC tourney for only the second time in history. They hosted a match in the state sectional tournament for the first time ever and also gave Dougherty his first win over Old Bridge.
Dougherty was named the Region 5 Coach of the Year.
"It was a memorable year," Dougherty said. "Our goal, always, is to win districts. For us to do that was a stamp on a very good season."
Joining DelPiano as a district champ were senior David Dominguez (135), junior Tyler Jaramillo (152) and sophomore Ali Yildiz (171). Finishing second in the tourney were freshman Jordan Pagano (112), freshman Tommy Dorsay (125), senior James Pagano (145) and junior Jake Pietrefesa (160).Jaramillo and Pietrefesa also were GMC champions.
Dougherty credited assistant coaches Dan Gavin, Darren Shulman and Ray Ostrowski, along with former wrestlers who came back to help at practices, with paving the way for success. He also said the parents of the squad’s wrestlers were instrumental.
"The kids wanted to do offseason wrestling and the support the parents gave their children was tremendous," Dougherty said. "Their parents bought into the system and did what they had to do to help them become better wrestlers. It was a true community effort, really. There was a lot of support. It was really good.
"Our kids have grown up wrestling together. They’re all really good friends with each other, so our team chemistry was tremendous. Like our kids are all friends, our parents are all friends too. It’s a total winning ingredient."