By Wayne Witkowski
Matt McGowan took his first big step toward returning to the NJSIAA wrestling championships at Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall and led a troupe of 13 Jackson township wrestlers, including nine teammates from Jackson Memorial High School, into the region championships this week.
Although none were district champions, seven wrestlers from Jackson Memorial and two from Jackson Liberty High School were runner-up at the districts, including McGowan at 132 pounds, in a typically strong showing for the Jaguars.
The other second-place finishers for Jackson Memorial in District 25 were Jeremiah Nash (120), Nick Tomasiello (145), Tim Hamann (152), Kyle Epperly (160), Dan Bergeron (170) and Dave Lemay (220).
Vin Scollo (106) and Leo Shimonovich (182) also advanced to the Region 7 tournament at Pine Belt Arena in Toms River with third-place finishes in the district.
They helped the Jaguars recently to a 10th sectional championship in NJSIAA Central Jersey, Group IV and a strong overall finish in a 15-9 season.
Jackson Memorial has the strongest representation in Region 7, followed by Lacey Township High School, which has seven wrestlers.
Jackson Memorial coach Doug Withstandley was still not pleased with his team’s performance.
“I’m disappointed. It’s the first time in over 30 years (since 1983) that we don’t have a district champion,” said Withstandley, a four-time district champion in his career at Jackson Memorial. “Getting there, you have a 50/50 chance of winning it. We didn’t capitalize. We didn’t have a good showing. We could’ve wrestled harder and made a better choice taking the mat between periods.”
Jackson Memorial actually has had more than one district champion every year since 1987, when Scott Goodale was the only one to win his weight class.
Withstandley found some satisfaction in pointing out that two sophomores — Scollo and Shimonovich — advanced to the region as district consolation winners.
The state has expanded the number of state championship qualifiers out of the region to the top four finishers. In the past, the top three would advance to Atlantic City.
Jackson Liberty wrestlers, meanwhile, proved to be a pleasant surprise as four advanced out of District 22, where the Lions were moved this season, and into the Region 6 tournament. They are district runners-up Josh Bollard (113) and Chavis Coleman (182) and third-place finishers Jair Hatch (120) and Shaun Plaza (132).
Howell High School, which dominated District 22, has a solid representation of 11 wrestlers in Region 6, matched by the 11 from District 21 champion Manalapan High School.
McGowan, a senior, is 29-3 and takes his 88 career victories at Jackson Memorial into the regions after finishing as a runner-up in District 25 for the second straight year. He was second last year in Region 6, where the Jaguars competed before being moved in a statewide shakeup.
Hamann also is district runner-up for the second straight year in a 20-8 season. He had just missed advancing to the state championships last year with a fourth-place finish in the region.
Three other Jaguars also carry records of 20 or more victories into the region tournament, including Scollo (29-3), Lemay (29-4) and Bergeron (26-7). Nash is 19-9 and Tomasiello is 15-13 on the season. Epperly, a freshman, is 13-9, while Shimonovich, a sophomore, continued his strong wrestling of late in a 7-11 campaign.
Bollard, a junior, carries the highest hopes of any Jackson Liberty wrestler to advance to the state championships with his second straight 20-victory season at 28-5.
Coleman (18-12), Plaza (20-13) and Hatch (15-10) have reversed losing records from a year ago. Plaza and Bollard are tied for the team lead in pins with 13 each.
Despite Jackson Liberty struggling through a 7-20 season with a young lineup, it got some satisfaction with the same number of wrestlers advancing to the region tournament as a year ago, when two of those wrestlers advanced to the state finals.
“The four guys I thought had the best opportunity to go through did live up to expectations,” coach Mike Eddy said. “After a tough season, this gives us something to look forward to for next season.”
Eddy believes Bollard and possibly Coleman have the best shot at advancing out of the region tournament. He said he believed that Bollard actually had a disappointing end in his weight class.
Bollard was holding on to a 1-0 lead and riding out the last minute of the match when he was reversed in the final seconds and was shocked by a 2-1 defeat.
“[Coleman] had a good tournament and has been wrestling well the last couple of weeks,” Eddy said, as Coleman dominated his first two opponents before losing a 12-0 decision in the finals.
Plaza got a first-period pin in his consolation match and Hatch, who has come on strong after being injured for much of his previous seasons, won a 4-2 decision in his consolation match.