By Jimmy Allinder
East Brunswick High School’s wrestling team has not experienced the success it envisioned for a couple of reasons.
A challenging schedule coupled with a lack of depth has caused the Bears, who are 2-2 in the Greater Middlesex Conference (GMC) Red Division and 2-3 overall, to struggle against opponents who fill more weight classes with experienced wrestlers.
East Brunswick met division opponent Old Bridge High School Jan. 11 and competes in a quad meet at Jackson Liberty High School Jan. 14 against the host school, Donovan Catholic High School and another opponent yet to be named.
The wins have been against Perth Amboy High School, 45-18, and South Brunswick High School, 56-19. The defeats have been to GMC and state power South Plainfield High School, 52-16, Piscataway Township High School, 35-28, and Cherry Hill High School West, 45-29.
East Brunswick hopes for better success when the multi-team tournaments are staged. The first is the GMCs Jan. 27 and 28 at Piscataway. There are still tri and quad meets in addition to dual meets on the schedule, and the Bears are hoping to garner enough points to qualify for the NJSIAA state team tournament, which begins Feb. 6.
Once a team champion is crowned, the focus will shift to the final three weekends of the season with the districts (Feb. 18 at South Brunswick), regionals (Feb 22, 24 and 25 at Hunterdon Central Regional High School) and the state finals (March 3-5 in Atlantic City).
Regardless of the Bears’ competition, three wrestlers will be in the spotlight. Junior Mitch Polito (113 pounds) and seniors Mark Schleifer (126) and Alec Gleason (132) remain unbeaten and won first-place medals when East Brunswick hosted the Bear Invitational Dec. 28.
What they achieved last year may be a prelude to what portends this season. Schleifer was 35-6, second in the GMCs, district champion and second in the regionals, and he also mounted the podium in Atlantic City with a sixth-place finish. Polito was 33-4, runner-up in the GMCs and district and regional champion. However, he was eliminated in the early rounds of the state finals. Gleason was 31-5, including finishing second in the GMCs, second in the districts and fourth in the regionals.
Others in the lineup are senior Matt Wendell (106), who is 4-1; senior Trent Stocki (138), who is 2-2; Nader Lasheen (145), who is 0-3; Christian Perrine (152), who is 2-3; and Mina Meshriky (160), who is 2-3.
Also, Keyrolos Danyal (170) is 2-3, senior Jason Minikel (182) is 5-1, Daniel Mattar (195) is 0-4, junior Tyler Tiongson (220) is 4-1 and junior Alexis Olivera (heavyweight) is 1-2.
“The strength of our team is in the lower weights,” said Matt Pazinko, who is in his eighth season as coach. “Jason missed most of last year with a knee injury but recovered to finish eighth in the regionals. Tyler also advanced to the regionals, and he’s done well so far this year. We’re hoping Matt continues to have an impactful season.”