Juba, Rugo claim titles
By Bob Nuse, The Packet Group
Both Frank Juba and Alec Rugo went into their championship matches at the Mercer County Wrestling Tournament facing unknown opponents.
Both used their experience to come up with a winning strategy and came away winners last Saturday at Robbinsville High.
Juba, the No. 2 seed at 220 pounds, went into double-overtime before coming away with a 3-2 win over top-seeded Jason Levy of Trenton. Meanwhile, Rugo held off a challenge from Peter Griffith of Lawrenceville to win the title at 170.
The two individual titles were part of an impressive showing for the Redbirds, as they finished third as a team at the MCT. Allentown finished with 134 points, which trailed only Hopewell Valley (225) and Steinert (160½) in the team standings/
Juba’s match was the first of the finals and provided little scoring and quite a bit of drama. Through regulation the match was tied, 1-1, with each wrestler scoring a point for an escape. After the first overtime it was 2-2 as each wrestler again scored a point for an escape. In the sudden-victory overtime period, Juba emerged a winner when he scored the deciding point when Levy was called for locking hands.
”It seemed like I had to wrestle conservative and not give up any big moves,” said Juba, who may face Levy again tonight when Allentown faced Trenton in a regular season match. “I wrestled as hard as I could. It was more making sure I didn’t make any mistakes. I wasn’t going to take any risks unless I had to.”
Juba, who was second at 215 last year, had never wrestled that far into overtime before. He was aware of what he needed to do and came away with his first MCT title.
”I knew what was going to happen and I knew the rules, but I had never been in that position before,” Juba said. “I knew I had to step up, wrestle hard and try to get out. I didn’t know at first he had locking hands.”
”I came in second last year. I just wanted to come here and win. This is my biggest win so far.”
Rugo had never faced Griffiths in a match, so he went into his final not quite sure what to expect.
”He’s from a prep school so I had not wrestled him before,” Rugo said. “But I find it easy to wrestle a kid for the first time. I don’t like wrestling kids I have already wrestled because they know what I am going to try to do.
”I got seeded very well, but you always come into it knowing that anything can happen.”
Rugo improved to 19-6 this season with his four wins at the MCT. He’s hoping the title helps carry him into the district tournament with some momentum.
”Most of my losses have been at 182, so my record doesn’t really show what I have done,” Rugo said. “The past couple years I have wrestled kids with great records and come out on top sometimes. I don’t think records matter that much. A lot of it is who you have wrestled. Everyone has different wrestling styles.
”There is no doubt I worked for this. I did a lot of off-season stuff and worked year-round. Sometimes kids come in from football and do well. But usually the better kids are here all year round.”
Rugo feels like the work he put in all season long made a difference in the final stages of the match.
”I kept it close,” the junior said. “I think in the third period is when the conditioning we do and all the hard work really comes in. He was a good wrestler and I didn’t want to do anything that was going to hurt me in the match.”
Juba and Rugo were two of the Redbirds’ six medalists at the MCT. James Mottram reached the finals at 113, where he dropped a 5-0 decision to top-seeded Gordon Wolf of Lawrence. Justin Miller was fourth at 138, Mark Meloro was fifth at 160, and Chris Weitz was sixth at 120.

