Central Jersey Duals wrap up tonight

JERRY WOLKOWITZ South Brunswick’s Kelley Lyon has control of his opponent and cousin, Jesse Burke, of North Brunswick during their match at the Old Bridge Wrestling Festival on Saturday.

Finals to begin at 7 p.m. in Old Bridge

By Doug mckenzie

The first leg of the 26th annual Old Bridge Wrestling Festival was held over the weekend with a number of local grapplers walking away with top finishes.

Team Old Bridge walked away with the high school club division title after scoring 64 team points, 11 and half more than second place Reflex Wrestling. Although the squad from Old Bridge finished second to the Black Widows team from Pennsylvania in the Grand Championship Team Score (best average points per wrestler) they placed the most wrestlers in the finals, held at the Old Bridge Sports Complex on Sunday.

JERRY WOLKOWITZ Travis Blasco, 12, of Old Bridge, maintains control of his opponent at the Old Bridge Wrestling Festival on Saturday.

Mike Carro gave Team Old Bridge their first win, when he defeated his teammate Vin Iodaci 5-0 in the 122-pound final. Vin Iodaci’s brother Sal had better luck, defeating Jersey Lightning’s Morgan Lobello 9-1 in the 182-pound final.

Aaron Suozzo gave Team Old Bridge their only other win, when he pinned St. Augustine’s Frank McGrath just 27 seconds into the 201-pound final.

Team Old Bridge also got a couple of second-place finishes from Travis Blasco (90-pounds) and Justin Smigelsky (110-pound), which helped in their quest for the team title.

Only three local wrestlers made it to the finals in the junior high school freestyle division. Kendall Park’s Garret Nasdeo started things off with a pin of Union’s Dave Greenwald 1:43 into the 70-pound final. In the 91-pound final, Old Bridge’s Travis Blasco took second, after being defeated by Shamong’s Ian Sullivan in the final.

Matawan’s Ashley Green also lost in the finals, finishing second in the heavyweight division to North Plainfield’s Manny Kakos.

The open collegiate division also saw three local grapplers in the finals. Garret Nasdeo’s older brother Kyle kept the family winning streak alive by defeating Dover’s Chris Rebels 14-3 in the 136-pound final. South River’s Bill Deniz managed to finish second in the 161-pound class, as did East Brunswick’s Sean Daly in the 181-pound class and North Brunswick’s Dan Rubenstein in the 157-pound class.

Despite the success of local wrestlers in all of the divisions, the local youngsters in the elementary school division certainly fared the best.

A pair of local kids took first-place titles. South Brunswick’s Sarah Dorsey was the first to celebrate after she beat Old Bridge’s Phil Sandford 4-2 in the 50-pound final. She was later joined by Old Bridge’s Stephen Fallon, who defeated Anthony Luma of Egg Harbor 8-6 to take the 66-pound final.

Although they were the only local kids to take first-place trophies home, Monroe’s Thomas Himmerlich (38 pounds), South Brunswick’s San White (53 pounds) and Mike MacMurray (56 pounds), Monroe’s Grant Herring (111 pounds) and Sayreville’s Shaun Bedding (132 pounds) all took seconds in their respective weight classes.

With the individual tournaments out of the way, the festival now turns to the Central Jersey Summer Duals, which started on Monday and will wrap up tonight.

This year’s duals were expected to be highly competitive, drawing some the top wrestlers in both Middlesex and Monmouth Counties.

Among some of the top teams in the area which sent wrestlers are Greater Middlesex Conference perennial powerhouse South Plainfield, Old Bridge and South Brunswick, as well as Bound Brook, one of the top teams out of Somerset County.

Other teams competing are Colonia, East Brunswick, Edison, Howell, J.F. Kennedy, North Brunswick, and Perth Amboy.

South Plainfield has been the team to beat in recent years, winning the duals the last three years in a row.

However, this year, both old Bridge and South Brunswick were expected to compete for the over-all title.

Thus far, South Plainfield has been the class of the field, after defeating J.F. Kennedy (54-6) and Bound Brook (48-14) in the first two rounds.

Old Bridge and Howell are also off to good starts, winning each of their first two matches.

South Brunswick beat Edison easily 48-13 in the first round, but was surprised by Howell in the second round, losing 41-24.

However, tonight’s finals will decide if anyone can compete with South Plainfield.

Under the tournament’s format, each of the 12 participating teams wrestled two dual matches each night with the teams split into two six-team groups.

The playoffs will then pit the top teams from those matches against each other tonight.

This marks the fifth year of the Central Jersey Duals, which started as a four team tournament in 1996 and quickly grew to a 16-team event last year. This year, the field was dropped to 10 teams due to space constrictions.

Tonight’s finals matches will begin at about 7 p.m.