Two Cougars, three Little Tigers claim tournaments
By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
Kurt Franey has come to expect championships from Anthony Cassar.
Now he might have to start getting used to seeing Terence Rohmeyer win titles as well.
Both Montgomery High wrestlers came away with weight class championships at the Bear Classic at East Brunswick High, where the Cougars finished fourth as a team.
Cassar, who was 34-4 and reached the Tournament of Champions last year, captured the 195-pound title with a 6-2 decision win over Doug Ryan of South River. The win was his seventh straight to open the season. Rohmeyer, a sophomore, captured the title at 106 pounds with a 4-0 win over Norberto Torres of Perth Amboy. Rohmeyer is 6-1 to start the season.
”It is always nice to wrestle kids out of the area before we get into the conference schedule,” said Franey, who is in his second season as the Montgomery head coach. “Anthony wrestled well and Terence has been having a good season. His only loss was in the finals of the Princeton tournament to a pretty good kid from Emerson.
”Overall it was a pretty good tournament for us. We were fourth out of 15 which I was pleased with. A lot of guys did well in wrestlebacks.”
Jacob Frisch was second at 113 pounds, Josh Isaacs finished third at 138 pounds and August Rohmeyer was third at 120. The Cougars have won their only dual match so far this season, topping Bernards.
”That was good to get a win under our belts,” Franey said. “Anthony is our only returning varsity guy that had a winning record last year so we lost a lot to graduation.
”We’re hoping to be .500 or somewhere near there. We face a tough schedule that helps to prepare them for the end of the season. The key for Anthony is to get him tough matches.”
With a schedule that includes the powers in Hunterdon County, Phillipsburg and Franklin, the Cougars should see plenty of tough competition.
Princeton had three of its wrestlers win titles at the Patriot Invitational at Secaucus, where the team finished fifth overall. At 113 pounds, James Verbeyst won the title with a pin of Abel Cedeno of Union City in the finals. At 126, Patrick Sockler was a winner via pin over James Cross of Red Bank in the finals. And Thomas Miers captured the 132 crown with a 12-5 win over Carlos Aguilar of Hawthorne in the finals.
Steve Majeski finished third at 152 and Victor Bell was third at 195 for the Little Tigers. Noah Ziegler finished fourth at 220.
West Windsor-Plainsboro High South finished eighth at the Bear Invitational at East Brunswick. Ben Schulman dropped a 10-7 decision to Chris Hartigan of Matawan in the finals at 170 pounds to finish second.