VOORHEES With one second left in his match on Friday night, Robert McMullen saved his Region VII Tournament.
With one second left in his match on Saturday night, McMullen was already savoring his Region VII Tournament championship.
By:Kyle Moylan
McMullen, a junior at Northern Burlington County Regional High School, defeated Cherokee’s Bill Crawley, 9-5, to win the Region VII championship at 130 pounds.
"It feels so good," McMullen said. "I can’t really even describe what it’s like. Right now it doesn’t matter to me what happens. From here on out, it’s a bonus."
After his victory at Eastern High School this past weekend, McMullen earned the right to continue wrestling in the Super Regions. The Super Regions were scheduled to be held last night, with the state finals taking place this weekend. Those are McMullen’s "bonus" events. The Region VII Tournament title was the goal.
Part of the reason why McMullen was able to appreciate his Region VII championship so much was the fact he knows how close he came to being taken out of the running for the title in the opening round.
"I got that escape with one second left to send the match into overtime," McMullen recalled. "I don’t even know how to explain what was going through my mind. I guess I was lucky."
If McMullen was "lucky" at the end of his first match, it’s only because he was so unlucky earlier in the contest.
"I started out real good and got an early lead, but then my knee started bothering me," McMullen recalled. "That’s the same knee I had surgery on."
McMullen was given about a minute to rest when the knee problem occurred. It was obvious that he was no longer wrestling at 100 percent, though.
Holy Cross’ Kyle Rahn began chipping away at McMullen’s lead. With 1:30 to go in the match, Rahn took a 5-4 lead with a takedown.
For the next minute, Rahn controlled McMullen, who tried several different moves to break free to get that critical point.
With 30 seconds left in regulation time, McMullen managed to get to his feet. He twisted. He turned. McMullen appeared within a matter of inches of escaping, but was brought back down to the mat by Rahn with 17 seconds left on the clock.
McMullen now only had enough time for one last chance to escape and to remain in the winner’s bracket of Region VII. McMullen pulled Rahn along the mat to the edge of the circle, dangerously close to going out of bounds as the final seconds clicked down.
7 . . .6 . . . 5 . . . 4 . . .3 . . . McMullen did a quick little spin move and turned to face Rahn for an instant before the Holy Cross wrestler forced them both out of bounds.
The referee blew his whistle to stop the clock. There was one second left. McMullen’s escape point was then signaled, resulting in loud screams from both the Northern Burlington and Holy Cross fans.
Only seconds into sudden-death overtime, McMullen recorded the takedown he needed to win.
Having escaped with the match he was favored to win, McMullen realized he would now be the underdog the rest of the way. As the third seed in Region VII, McMullen needed to take down the top two seeds in the semis and finals to emerge as the champion.
"Winning on Friday night was a relief," McMullen said. "I came into Saturday morning knowing he (Lenape’s Kurt Minuto) was supposed to win. I had nothing to lose. I could just go out and wrestle."
Favored or not, McMullen dominated Minuto, 7-1. McMullen then had to find a way to keep himself preoccupied for about eight hours as he waited to wrestle again.
McMullen visited with his family and friends. With his parents, grandparents, girlfriend and other friends there to root him on, McMullen had one of the largest cheerleading sections of any wrestler. And this group certainly got a chance to use their vocal chords in the finals.
McMullen trailed Crawley 2-1 after the first period, but grabbed the lead in the second stanza with a reversal and back points. Going into the final period, McMullen was up 5-3.
With 1:25 left in the match, Crawley took down McMullen down to tie the match at 5-5.
In much the same way McMullen’s last-second escape gave him an edge against Rahn in overtime, Crawley appeared to now have the advantage. Anyone familiar with McMullen, however, knew that wasn’t the case.
"He (McMullen) owns the end of the match," Northern Burlington Coach Tony Trongone said. "I can’t even tell you how many times he’s managed to pull out a match at the end."
With 53.1 seconds to go, McMullen brought Crawley to the mat. With 9.1 seconds to go, McMullen turned Crawley to expose his back.
The McMullen cheering section leapt to its feet. A minute later they were embracing their hero, who happily accepted kisses and congratulatory handshakes.
With tears welling up in his eyes, McMullen’s grandfather proudly patted his grandson on the back. "Boy, I don’t know how many more of these matches I can take."
Robert McMullen certainly makes his matches interesting. More so than anything else, McMullen makes his matches wins.
"After last season, I wanted to come back here to Region VII and redeem myself," McMullen said. "I wanted to come here and prove that I could come out on top."
Not a problem. Down a point with one second to go or up by four points with his cheering section jumping up and down in the title match, Robert McMullen had the Region VII Tournament right where he wanted it every step of the way.
