MIGUEL JUAREZ staff Brick Memorial’s John Barrett works on Jackson’s Dave Concepcion during a bout at the Central Jersey Group IV championships on Thursday in Jackson. Brick Memorial’s wrestling team comes off a sound thrashing by Jackson, 43-14, in the NJSIAA Group IV Central Jersey championships after knocking off two top 20-ranked teams in the preliminary rounds.
But coach Dean Albanese and 152-pound wrestler David Kiley feel it has not dented his team’s confidence for the District 23 tournament at Wall starting Friday.
“Actually, I thought we wrestled very well throughout the states,” said coach Dean Albanese. “It’s all a matter of how the seedings go (for match-ups). Our top guys are in some pretty tough weights.”
“”We’re on the right foot going into the districts,” said Kiley. “We’re a much better team than in the middle of the season when we lost to Wall, which was our low point and their high point. We’re starting to peak right now.”
Kiley speaks from experience. A year ago, Brick Memorial’s wrestling team struggled with injuries and a few departures but used its depth to win an unprecedented 18th straight championship.
This year’s team also was hit with injuries, but still went 12-6 and raised its confidence in the state tournament by knocking off No. 17 Old Bridge, 33-26, and No. 10 Hunterdon Central, 29-28, on criteria on Wednesday. The latter victory was based on the most first points scored in the bout. A week earlier, the team lost to then-unbeaten Ocean in its Shore Conference Tournament opener after reaching the semifinals a year ago.
And despite coach Dean Albanese’s pessimism about the districts, the Mustangs have gotten more contributions from underclassmen and unheralded players, like last year’s team did when Mike Elshamy, who is back at 189, was the only district champion, but many others were place-winners. Four wrestlers who finished second are back.
A classic example came in that opening round of the state tournament last week when Gabe Gill, a senior who saw little action this season, was inserted in the lineup when Bob Phillips could not wrestle at 215 pounds, and won both bouts that day.
“I know it’s tough but I have a real strong feeling we’re going to win,” said Kiley. “We know we can get wins from guys like Mike Elshamy, Mike Hudak, Mike Shevlino, John Barrett and John Havens. We need the freshmen and sophomores to step up like Karon Reid and Don Miller and John Guzzi. If they can place and get pins, we have a better shot to win the district.”
Jay Rosenthal, Shevlino, Hudak and Kiley were district runners-up.
Another one — Sean McCrossen — is out with a season-ending wrist injury. Barrett finished third in last year’s districts, as did the Davis brothers, Jim and Nick, who are no longer on the team, one with an injury and the other left.
Kiley knows he has to step up as well in his final season. He is leaning toward Bloomsburg for a college career, but also has been recruited by Rider, West Virginia and George Mason.
Kiley is 22-3 with 10 pins and has won his last 10 bouts since getting pinned by Middletown North’s Ben Hockins with six seconds left when his desperation move while trailing by one point backfired. His other losses were a 3-2 decision by Kitatinny’s Tom Spellman and a 9-4 loss to Absegami’s Phil Black, in which Kiley was assessed four stalling points.
“Everything is better since then,” said Kiley of the Hockins loss.
“That loss woke me up. I’m in a lot better shape and better at attacking for the whole six minutes. I’m getting a lot more takedowns.”
Kiley has settled in at 152 pounds after moving up from 140 to 160 at the start of the season and going down a weight class shortly afterward.
“I felt real light going at 160 so I figured if I go to 152 and cut down some, I’ll be stronger there,” he said.