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04- State Chair visits the NCAA Tournament
March Matness!!!!
Congratulations New Jersey Wrestling. 32 New Jersey wrestlers qualified for the NCAA's this year. Their combined win loss record was 66 wins against 58 losses. 9 became All-Americans placing 1st through 8th in the nation.
NEW JERSEY HAS ANOTHER NATIONAL CHAMPION.
Congratulations to Damion Hahn, of Lakewood and University of Minnesota, for winning his second national championship. This year it was at 197 pounds. Last year remember Damion was behind in points and did a spectacular throw in the closing seconds to win. This year Damion wrestled very methodically and kept control during each and every match. Damion was seeded number 1. His first match he beat Kevin Kessner of Wyoming 12-4; his second he beat Rusty Blackman from the National Championship team Oklahoma State 13-4; he them beat Josh Birt from Pittsburg who had previously upset Matt Greenberg, 6-2; his closest match was a semi-final where he beat the 4th seed Ryan Bader from Arizona State 2-1; and in the final bout he beat Ryan Fulsaas from Iowa, who had upset 2nd seed Chris Skretkowicz, 6-2. Damion finishes his senior year with two 4th place finishes and two first place finishes. Look for Damion to highlight a Clinic for New Jersey wrestlers the beginning of August.
149 pounder sophomore Zack Esposito of Three Bridges, Blair Academy, and Oklahoma State University placed 2nd at 149 pounds. His loss was to the eventual outstanding wrestler of the tournament, Jesse Jantzen from Harvard. Zack won four bouts in a row to get to the finals including a win over 7th seed and highly regarded Jeremy Spates of Missouri and son of Oklahoma University's head coach.
Sophomore, Matt Valenti of Kittatiny, wrestling for University of Penn, placed 5th at 125 pounds and wrestled 3 overtime bouts. One win was over NJ's Joe Dubuque. Junior, Chris Skretkowicz, of Hamburg and Hofstra University was seeded second at 197 pounds. He won two bouts before losing to the eventual 2nd place finisher 7-6. He wrestled back to win three more and placed 5th. Senior, Foley Dowd of Howell, Peddie and University of Michigan was seeded 4th at 133 pounds. He was upset by the 5th seed and eventual National Champion Zach Roberson of Iowa State 3-1. Foley won two more and lost two to place 6th in the nation. Junior, Cory Cooperman of Springfield and Blair was seeded 9th at 141 pounds. He lost the first match to an unseeded wrestler by a fall in 0:26. He won 5 matches in a row before losing to the second seed Nate Gallick of Iowa state 4-2 and won his last bout over the 8th seed to place 7th. The wrestler who beat him in the first round lost the next two and did not place. Freshman, Kurt Backes of Nesanic Station, Blair Academy and Iowa State was seeded 8th at 184 pounds. He was upset his first match by Reinke from Wisconson. Reinke lost his next two matches and did not place. Kurt won the next five bouts before his next loss. He beat the 10th seed Lehigh's Frick for 7th place. Senior, Matt Greenberg of Upper Saddle River and Cornell, was seeded 8th at 197 pounds. He too lost his first match to unseeded Josh Birt of Pittsburg. Matt won his next four, his last one by injury default when he was slammed. He had to forfeit his next bout that day but came back the next day to win 6-2 over Cerminara of Buffalo and place 7th. Joe Dubuque of Bloomfield and Indiana University was seeded 8th at 125 pounds. Joe lost his first match to unseeded Pitts from Chattanooga. He won the next 5 matches before losing to NJ's Matt Valenti by injury default in the closing seconds. Joe forfeited his final bout and placed 8th to be a sophomore All-American.
Twenty three other NJ wrestlers did an outstanding job to qualify for the NCAA's and be a part of March Matness. At 125 pounds in addition to Matt and Joe, senior Tom Noto from South River and Hofstra qualified and was seeded 7th. Tom was one match win from All-American status. He was 3-2 with a win over the 4th seed. At 133 pounds in addition to Foley, Junior Sean Markey from Randolph and the Citadel upset the 12th seed, lost to the eventual national champion Roberson and was 1-2 overall. Junior Ed Gutnik from Iselin and Wisconson was seeded 11th. He won his first bout. He lost his second to the eventual national runner-up Josh Moore 1-0. Ed finished 1-2. Freshman, Don Fisch from Delsea and Rider also lost to the national runner-up Moore and finished 0-2. At 141 pounds, in addition to Cory, Senior Rob Becker from George Mason lost to the 4th seed and was 0-2. Sophomore Doug Withstandley from Jackson and Purdue was 0-2. Junior Frank Edgar from Toms River East and Clarion lost to the 10th seed and then to NJ's Cory Cooperman. At 149 pounds, in addition to Zack, Sophomore Matt Anderson from South Plainfield and Lehigh was 0-2 losing one match to the 10th seed 3-1 and the other 4-2. At 157 pounds, Senior Brett Vanderveer from Berkeley Heights and U of Penn was 0-2. Senior Scott Garren from Gibbstown and NC State won his first and lost 2. Senior Paul Siemon from Paramus and Hofstra was 2-2 winning one match over NJ's Dave Miller. Sophomore Dave Miller from Southampton and Rider lost to the second seed and eventual champ Matt Gentry from Stanford. His second loss was to NJ's Siemon. At 165 senior Michael Barikian from Stratford and Navy was 1-2. At 174 pounds Junior Andrew Roy from Wall and Rutgers was 8th seed. He was upset in his first match 5-4. Won his next 2 and lost in a tie breaker to the 5th seed and 5th placer, Hauan from UNI. Freshman, and Nick Roy, also from Wall and from Wisconsin was 1-2 losing to 10th seed Thompson of Hofstra 6-2. Senior Ralph DeNisco from Woodcliff Lake and Wisconsin won his first match and lost to the second seed Tyler Nixt from Iowa 4-2. Ralph won two more before losing to the 10th seed Thompson 5-3. At 184 pounds, in addition to Kurt Backes, Junior Frank Cornely from Pennsauken and Duke University lost to the National Champion Greg Jones from West Virginia. Frank then won against NJ's Brad Christie, won against NJ's Nick Catone, and lost to NJ's Kurt Backes. Senior Brad Christie from Fort Lee and Hofstra was 0-2 losing one to NJ's Frank Cornely. Senior Nick Catone from Brick and Rider was seeded 11th. Nick one his first and then lost 2 one of which was to Frank Cornely. Freshman Jerry Rinaldi from Lodi and Cornell won his first and lost the next two on to Ben Heizer the 2nd seed and second place winner 4-0. Junior Rudy Medini of Colonia and Rutgers also lost to Ben Heizer the 2nd seed and second place winner a score of 8-4. He won one before losing to the 5th place Kaplan from Ohio State. At 197 Pounds, in addition to Damion, Chris and Matt, Freshman Zach Garren was 0-2. At Heavyweight, Freshman Ramel Meekins from Westwood and Rutgers lost his first 5-3, won his next two and lost in sudden victory overtime to Oregon State's Rakevich.
Be sure you have taken a moment to congratulate any of these wrestlers that you know and others who tried to qualify for the NCAA Wrestling tournament.
John Welch
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