District tournaments begin today
By: Bob Nuse
Bill Mealy gets a special feeling when he watches a freshman wrestler come in and absorb everything he and his coaching staff try to teach in practice each day.
The feeling is even better when he sees that wrestler use what he has learned to get better with each passing day. Mealy sees a lot of that in freshman Ted Hirt.
"He’s improved quite a bit and gained consistency, but he’s still a freshman and he’s not real sure of himself all of the time," said Mealy, the West Windsor-Plainsboro High North head coach. "He always wrestles real tough. The thing I like most about him is that he always pays attention in the room and then he tries the things we’ve just taught him. The thing we’ve noticed about him is that he’ll try the new moves when he goes out on the mat and see how he does with them."
Hirt will get a chance to put all he has learned together this weekend when WW-P North competes in the District 20 tournament, which is scheduled to begin tonight at 6 p.m. at South Brunswick High. The tournament concludes Saturday, beginning at 10 a.m. In the event snow forces tonight’s action to be cancelled, the entire tournament will run Saturday.
WW-P South will also compete in District 20, while Princeton will head to Hunterdon Central to compete in the District 17 tournament.
For a freshman like Hirt, the district tournament offers an opportunity to try to put together everything he’s learned with the experience of a full season and see what he can do.
"I’m just going to try to do the best that I can," said Hirt, who has a 10-9 record this season. "In the beginning of the year, I was wrestling against some pretty good kids and I had no idea what to expect. I was just trying to learn as I would go on."
Hirt earned the No. 5 seed at 119 and is one of five Knights to be seeded in the top five. Alex Ragucci is seeded No. 2 at 160, while Chris Webb is a No. 3 seed at 189. Jeff Rotella and Corey Simmons-Edler are each No. 5 seeds.
WW-P South had two wrestlers seeded in the top four. Misha Episov is seeded No. 1 at 152, while Will Despines is a No. 4 seed at 145.
In District 17, Princeton earned at No. 2 seed at 189 pounds for Will Borchert. Tom Frantzen is the No. 4 seed at 160 and Dale Oweseni is No. 4 at 215, while Andre Cuttler is the No. 5 seed at 152 and J.P. Hendrickson is the No. 5 seed at 275.
The top three wrestlers in each weight class advance to the Region 5 tournament, and Mealy likes the chances of some of his wrestlers.
"We have some guys that have a shot to get in there," Mealy said. "It’s going to be hard, but we’ll see if they rise to the occasion. It’s going to be like last year where if we’re going to win, we’re going to need guys to go out and have their best matches. Alex has a real good chance. And I think Jeff and Corey have a shot to advance as well.
"Ted’s first match is against a kid who beat him in the first match of the year (Vinnie Biondo of South Brunswick). So we’ll see what happens."
Hirt, who wrestled in middle school, has found the going a little different at the high school level. But he’s made the adjustment and should only continue to improve.
"It’s a big difference," Hirt said. "Everyone is a lot better. I know it will be tough at districts. There is only one other team from the CVC there, so we’ll see some different competition. It’s been a good experience."
And wrestling at the District 20 tournament will be yet another chance to gain experience for Hirt and continue his season of development.