WW-P North earns second win
By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
Ethan Kaye can notice the improvement in his wrestling fortunes from his freshman year to this year. And so can his coach.
”He has a little more confidence than what he had in the past,” said WW-P North coach Bill Mealy, who got a win from Kaye at 119 pounds as the Knights topped WW-P South, 47-21, on Wednesday night. “At times, it’s hard to remember he’s a sophomore. Being one of our better guys, we count on him to be like a junior or a senior.”
As a freshman, Kaye had a successful season wrestling mostly at 103 and 112, where he went 16-14 for the Knights. His win over Brian Ogelsby on Wednesday raised his record for this year to 10-3.
”Record-wise I have been doing better,” said Kaye, who helped the Knights improve to 2-10 overall this season. “Just the moves I know and how fluid I am with them is much better than last year. It’s just more experience and repetitions. I try to work in practice with people who are bigger and better than me. But I also try to work with the younger kids who can use some guidance.
”I’ve been going to a lot of off-season camps and doing more off-season wrestling. I’ve gotten more familiar with the moves and been able to do them in live situations.”
Although he is just a sophomore, Kaye is a veteran on the mats for the Knights. His steady efforts at 119 have helped give Mealy a building block for the future. The win over South snapped a seven-match losing streak.
”It’s always important to beat your rivals,” said Kaye, who pulled away in the third period for a 13-5 win over Ogelsby. “This was a needed win. I knew I could beat him. It was just getting to that point where he finally broke and I was able to take advantage.
”We’re a young team and I think every year we’ll be improving as long as we keep working hard. We have a lot of young guys and the middle school has been doing better, so they’ll feed into it.”
The Knights had fallen behind after the first match when South’s Mike Kenny posted a win at 140. But the Knights won the next eight matches, getting wins from Ted Hirt, Matt Kalinowski, Peter Lee, Ahmed Abdelhady, Nate Frost, Ben Newman, Vikram Kumar and Carl DeJoya to open a 43-3 lead.
Kaye was the only North winner the rest of the way, as the Pirates got wins from Kory Beach, Matt Redmond, Jon Redmond and Alfonso Gonzalez.
”Any time you have North and South together, records don’t mean a whole lot,” said Mealy, whose team will face Hamilton tonight and South Brunswick on Saturday. “Last year we thought we were going to win and didn’t.
”It’s funny because with the way those guys have been wrestling, I don’t know what I am going to get. Even Ahmed got himself in trouble, but he overcame it.”
Even though the win was just the second of the season for the Knights, Mealy has been pleased with the progress he has seen.
”The attitude in the wrestling room has improved a lot since the beginning of the year,” the North coach said. “We are getting better. We have to eliminate some of the mental mistakes we are having on the mat. A couple more guys might have been able to win if they just kept themselves out of trouble.”
WW-P South slipped to 0-13 with the loss. But the Pirates, like the Knights, have been making strides.
”I don’t think we wrestled as well as we could have tonight,” WW-P South coach Christopher Manente said. “They were 1-10 and we’re 0-12, so I thought it would be a little more evenly matched than it was. We have wrestled better against teams that have better records. We did about the same against Lawrence last week and they’re having a nice season.
”We’re getting better. I’ve got 17 sophomores this year, two juniors, a senior and two freshmen. So there is not a lot of mat time right there. I’m encouraging the guys to hit the camps this summer if they’re serious about it and maybe we can make some progress next year.”
The Pirates made their strongest showing in the lower weights, which has been the case most of the season.
”That’s where our better guys are,” Manente said. “Kory Beach is over .500 right now. Both Redmonds are doing well. Jon has the most wins on the team and his twin, Matt, is doing fairly well. We’re solid at 112 up though 130.
”We’re not just treading water. We’re getting better every week. Not as fast as I would like, but these things don’t just happen over night. I have to keep my attitude positive and keep bringing the intensity myself. I always believe in leading by example. If my motivation or intensity dips, they’re going to lose the enthusiasm to try and get better.”