Hillsborough wrestlers top Watchung Hills on criteria in meeting of Somerset's top teams

After Hillsborough and Watchung Hills tied 33-33 in Saturday’s drama-filled match, each team faced its next opponent – the rule book. As in, time to check the list of 16 criteria to determine the winner. Criteria A … the team who “has been penalized the greater number of team points for flagrant misconduct or unsportsmanlike conduct.”

Nope.

Criteria B … “The team whose opposing head coach has been penalized the greater number of team points for coach misconduct shall be declared the winner.”

Nope.

Down the list they went until Criteria E – the team with the most “falls, defaults, forfeits or disqualifications shall be declared the winner.”

Bingo.

Hillsborough held a 4-2 edge in pins and received an extra point to claim the 34-33 victory in a meeting of Somerset County’s top teams. In fact, the two squads have won the last five Somerset County Tournament titles.

At last weekend’s SCT, Hillsborough captured its second-straight title with 173 points and Watchung Hills placed second with 160. Watchung Hills won the SCT from 2018-2020. (There was no tournament in 2021.)

Saturday’s match lived up to the expectations.

“Quite the nail-bitter,” Hillsborough coach Rhys Weinberger said.

Don’t get him wrong, the Raiders wrestlers have no problem winning by a blowout. Still, it’s fun to challenge yourself and take part in these crowd-friendly, every move counts-type of matches.

“We always like being in close ones,” Weinberger said. “Obviously, it’s fun to dominate every once in a while, but we live for those moments, too. Those big moments where it does come down to one match. When it does come down to one pin or a couple pins. I try to get the guys ready for those big moments. I tell them often have the courage to do something in those big moments and not to just freeze up or to try to win defensively. To have the courage to go out and do something big and thrive in those environments.”

More:Hillsborough repeats as Somerset County Tournament wrestling champions

Both teams showed plenty of moxie in the quad at Watchung Hills, which also included Morris Knolls and Emerson Park Ridge. Hillsborough went 3-0 on the day to improve to 10-1 and match their win total from last year’s 10-10 season.

Saturday, each team won seven matches apiece in a dual that started at 120.

Hillsborough got pins from Chris Spinelli (132), Jack Miller (165), Joey Witcoski (190) and Matt Jones (215). The Raiders’ Zach Iannucci opened with a 1-0 win and Peter Quandt took a 7-0 decision at 175.

In the marquee match, Hillsborough heavyweight Christian Quandt edged Hunter Seubert 3-2 with an escape in ultimate tiebreaker. It was nearly a mirror rematch of the SCT final in which Seubert prevailed 3-2 in UTB. Both times, each wrestler escaped once during regulation, in the OT tiebreaker periods and in the UTB. Also each time, the winning wrestler won the coin toss and chose bottom in the ultimate tiebreaker.

Hillsborough’s five straight wins from 165 to 285 negated an early Warriors 25-9 lead through the midway point of seven matches.

“We look to them for a lot,” Weinberger said of the team’s upper weights. “We put a lot of pressure on them to get us a lot of team points, but they show up and they get it done for us.”

Quandt’s win gave Hillsborough a 33-25 lead with two matches left. At 106, Watchung Hills SCT champ Anthony DiAndrea won 22-7 in 5:32 to cut the deficit to 33-30 – but give Logan McDermid credit. The Hillsborough wrestler avoided the fall and saved a team point. McDermid placed third in the SCT, but he didn’t wrestle the Watchung Hills freshman star.

In the final match at 113, Watchung Hills put out Cameron Kolakowski, who took third in the SCT at 120. He came up with a 4-2 sudden victory win over Hillsborough breakout freshman Tommy Kester, the SCT champion at 113.

More:SCT Wrestling Notebook: A look at the 11 champions not from Hillsborough

The win tied it 33-33 as they headed to the criteria list.

“Last year we lost to Hillsborough 56-6 – by 50,” Watchung Hills coach Jim Huff said. “If you were to tell me it would come down to the last match with a team returning 12 of 14 starters, I would’ve told you to sign me up right away. I am super proud of the effort our guys showed today. Unfortunately, we lost the coin toss which gave Hillsborough the choice at heavyweight. There were a lot of small things we didn’t do that we will have to clean up if we want to make a run in the state tournament.”

The Warriors got pins from Christian Calvo (150) and Harry Liu (157), a tech fall from Cody Pritzlaff (144) and major decisions from Jordan Bash (126) and Lorenzo Percario (138).

Watchung Hills (7-1) defeated Morris Knolls 43-21 and Emerson Park Ridge 55-21 on the day.

After the officials declared Hillsborough the winner against the Warriors, they couldn’t fully celebrate – the Raiders still had one match left in the quad. So back to work they went with a 48-17 win over Emerson Park Ridge. In the opener, Hillsborough beat Morris Knolls 50-9.

“The coaches met with the refs,” Weinberger said. “We discussed the criteria. We established the winner and then we moved on from there. A little celebration but it was our second match of the day, so we actually had to go wrestle another match right after it. We went and got another dual win and we’re leaving the weekend 10-1.”

Hillsborough 34, Watchung Hills 33

120: Zachary Iannucci (HILL) over Nick Valenti (WHR) (Dec 1-0) 126: Jordan Bash (WHR) over Corey Iannucci (HILL) (MD 16-5) 132: Christopher Spinelli (HILL) over Steven Lisbona (WHR) (Fall 1:13) 138: Lorenzo Percario (WHR) over Alex Villa (HILL) (MD 9-1) 144: Cody Pritzlaff (WHR) over Brett Lockburner (HILL) (TF 21-6 5:08) 150: Christian Calvo (WHR) over Matthew Miller (HILL) (Fall 4:24) 157: Harry Liu (WHR) over Giuseppe Cicciari (HILL) (Fall 3:57) 165: Jack Miller (HILL) over Luke Williams (WHR) (Fall 2:51) 175: Peter Quandt (HILL) over Matt Mina (WHR) (Dec 7-0) 190: Joseph Witcoski (HILL) over Alejandro Dilone (WHR) (Fall 0:50) 215: Matthew Jones (HILL) over Alex Rodriguez (WHR) (Fall 2:27) 285: Christian Quandt (HILL) over Hunter Seubert (WHR) (UTB 3-2) 106: Anthony DiAndrea (WHR) over Logan McDermid (HILL) (TF 22-7 5:32) 113: Cameron Kolakowski (WHR) over Thomas Kester (HILL) (SV-1 4-2) (HILL Tie-Breaker E: Most Wins by Pin 1.0)

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Hillsborough wrestlers top Watchung Hills on criteria in thriller