By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
For wrestlers, the Mercer County Tournament can be a springboard to success in the coming weeks at the district, region and, hopefully, state tournaments., A trio of Packet-area wrestlers came away with individual titles last weekend at the MCT, which was held at Robbinsville High. Overall, it was a weekend of success for all three local teams., Princeton picked up individual titles from Alec Bobchin at 126 pounds and James Verbeyst at 160, while West Windsor-Plainsboro South also picked up a title when Sean Thompson won at 138 pounds., In the team standings, Princeton finished sixth, WW-P South was eighth and WW-P North was 14th., Bobchin, the top seed at 126, had won the 120-pound title last year. he captured this year’s title with a 12-2 win over Joe Schneider of Notre Dame in the finals., “You cant take anyone lightly, but I went in feeling confident,” said Bobchin, a Cranbury resident. “I know how well I can wrestle when I wrestle my best. It was a great day for our team. We had the most people in the finals in school history with four., “We kind of fed off each other. As soon as one person does well it fires you up to do well. Counties is a big tournament because it is bragging rights in the area and also a confidence booster for me going to districts. It helps with seedings as well.”, Bobchin is hoping his success carries over into districts, where he was second last year to qualify for regions., “I feel like every match I am wrestling stronger and smarter,” he said. “I am trying to continue to improve as the season goes on. I have a good practice partner and our coaches are always helping me. Winning this is a good confidence builder for me and it reminds me how well I can wrestle.”, In addition to the wins from Bobchin and Verbeyst, who defeated Kyle Twamley of Robbinsville, 19-7, in the finals, Princeton’s Ethan Guerra lost in the finals at 195 and Daniel Monahan lost in the finals at 120. Dominic Reindeau-Krause was fifth at 113 and Reinaldo Zephirin was fifth at 138., “As a team it made us feel pretty good about ourselves and we showed everyone we can wrestle,” Bobchin said., WW-P South’s Thompson won at 138 after finishing third at 120 last year., “I wanted to win,” Thompson said. “Throughout the whole tournament I was going to wrestle my best each match and focus on each one individually. Each time I wrestled I didn’t care about the competition or who I was wrestling, I just wanted to do the best I could each match., “I feel like I stayed humble the whole time. I knew anything could happen. I told myself there was a was and reason I was the top seed and I would fight hard all six minutes of every match.”, WW-P South had six wrestlers medal. In addition to Thompson, Joe Salerno was second at 132, losing in overtime in the finals. Brandon Murray was fourth at 106, Brandon Agran was fourth at 113. Steve O’Campo was third at 152, and Duncan Kreutter was sixth at 170., “We were happy that so many of us were in the semifinals,” Thompson said. “Even though a couple guys lost and only me and Joe got to finals, we support each other on the team and everyone wrestled hard and get into that third place match., “Each guy in the practice room pushes the others as hard as we can. Whether we win or lose we’re trying to get our guys to be the best we can and hope when districts come around we push each other and do everything we can to be successful.”, WW-P North’s Jacob Mitchell was fifth at 145 to lead the way for the Knights.
