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

HILLSBOROUGH – Getting revved up before a wrestling match is a good thing. Too much of an adrenaline rush, though, is not always optimal. At least that’s what Somerville’s Joe Aldrich found out.

“One of my first matches of the season, I was way too amped up before the match,” the senior said. “I came out like a bull, and then I fluked.”

Somerville assistant coach Kyle Ligthner, a 2017 state champion at Delaware Valley, had a tip. Aldrich noted that he told him that piano was his musical choice before matches.

So forget heavy metal or rap, Aldrich started humming Frank Sinatra’s “Fly Me To The Moon” on the sidelines.

“It keeps me calm,” Aldrich said. “Keeps me composed and then once I get in the match, I’m in a whole other zone. I’m wrestling.”

Saturday, a relaxed Aldrich captured his second-straight Somerset County Tournament title in one of the marquee finals. At 120, the senior decisioned Bound Brook’s Sean Markey 5-0 in a meeting of defending champs and state qualifiers. (Aldrich won at 113, Markey at 120 in 2022.)

Aldrich got a takedown near the end of the first period and brought Markey down to the mat hard. The Bound Brook senior took injury time, but was able to continue. Aldrich added to his lead with a reversal in the second period and an escape in the third, avoiding Markey’s throwing attempts.

With a nod to "Ol' Blue Eyes", Aldrich earned Somerville’s 100th individual SCT title in the program’s history.

“I also like “My Way” by him,” Aldrich said. “But I don’t know, that one lyric gets in my head and I keep it rolling the whole time.”

More: Hillsborough repeats as Somerset County Tournament wrestling champions

Here is a look at the 10 other individual winners not from team champion Hillsborough.

Also winning titles were Somerville’s Lucas Marchese (144) and Ryan Closterman (150), Manville’s Trip Freitag (175), Montgomery’s Lucas Allen (215), Watchung Hills’ Anthony DiAndrea (106), Christian Calvo (150) and Hunter Seubert (285), Ridge’s Tim Kolshorn (138) and Bridgewater-Raritan’s Michael Marsigliano (126) and Danny Smith (132).

Somerville excels

The Pioneers had two other wrestlers go to the moon Saturday. In fact, Somerville crowned three champions, which tied Hillsborough and Watchung Hills for the most of any school.

At 157, junior Ryan Closterman was selected as the Outstanding Wrestler after topping Watchung Hills’ Harry Liu 5-1 with a spirited Somerville section making noise. Liu was the defending champion at the weight, while Closterman placed second at 150 last year.

Last Wednesday, Liu edged Closterman 7-5 in a dual meet. Undaunted, Closterman went back to work knowing he’d likely see Liu again. Saturday, he had the right mindset.

“I was thinking, I was like I worked hard in the room for this,” Closterman said. “I practiced. I prepared. I’m ready and then let’s win. Let’s go.”

This time, he prevailed, noting, “I did a better job recovering from my shots and doing better on my offense and my feet.”

Closterman was leading heading into the third period. In the aftermath, though, don’t ask him to recall details.

“I’m not really focused on the score,” he said. “I’m more focused on scoring points.”

Sometimes, just getting those first points makes a big difference mentally.

In the 144 final, Lucas Marchese got a quick takedown en route to an 8-0 win over Pingry’s Charles Levine for the title.

“Once I got the first takedown, I knew I could win,” he said. “I felt like I had it in the bag. It’s definitely a confidence boost for me.”

Marchese continued working for the methodical win to cap a dominant tournament. The senior advanced with pins in 3:45 and 20 seconds to claim the gold medal.

Manville’s surprise champ

Forget the OW award, Manville’s Trip Freitag most likely would have won the Most Drama award. The fifth-seeded sophomore beat the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 4 seeds in down-to-the-wire matches to capture the 175-pound title.

Afterward, he sounded like a veteran.

“When I’m in a close match, I just try to think,” Freitag said. “Like I don’t try to like rush anything or do anything that will put me in bad positions. So, I try to keep my calm and not let too much stuff get to my head. … I like to slow it down sometimes and think about how I can improve my positions.”

In the quarterfinals, Freitag pinned fifth-seeded Peter Quandt of Hillsborough in 7:46. After the first minute of sudden death overtime, Freitag was on top and hit a pancake for the fall as Quandt tried a switch. He then edged top-seeded Fabian Acuna of Somerville 3-2 in the semifinal before beating No. 2 seeded Steven Shimko (Bridgewater-Raritan) in the final 2-1 via a reversal at the end of the second period as time expired.

Freitag said he didn’t let the seeding get to his head beforehand. For one, Acuna beat him 5-3 on Dec. 28. Despite the loss, Freitag noted he “actually felt pretty good.”

“I felt like I had a pretty decent chance to at least place because I was toe to toe with the first seed,” he said. “It’s like everybody in my bracket was kind of really close together."

Manville coach Pat Gorbatuk said that Freitag has improved from even the start of the season.

“A week and a half ago, he was losing them tight,” Gorbatuk said. “Today, he found a way to end up on the right side of it. From a mental standpoint, he really made leaps and bounds. Physically, we know he’s got the tools. He’s a very young, athletic sophomore who’s wrestled since he was a young kid. Now, it’s a matter of continuing to mature and continue to work hard like he always has and have it come together more consistently and today you could see the consistency shine through.”

Watchung Hills places second

Hunter Seubert wasn’t so sure about wrestling this season. Yeah, he was a region finalist at heavyweight as a sophomore two years ago, but he missed last winter while recovering from shoulder surgery and he could have now easily focused on football training.

“I was on the fence,” the senior said. “I know coach (Watchung Hills coach Jim) Huff forever. He sucked me back in and I’m glad he did because I’m having a great time.”

Seubert made his debut on Thursday. Two days later, he captured the SCT heavyweight title with a thrilling 3-2 overtime win after escaping in the 30-second ultimate tiebreaker over the defending champ, Christian Quandt of Hillsborough.

So, so much easing into the competition.

“That’s the way to do it,” said Seubert, who quickly got into wrestling condition. “I don’t think there’s anything like wrestling and coming from any sport there’s nothing like being in wrestling shape. So it’s good to get matches. Good to go against good competition and our coaches do a great job getting us in shape in the room and that’s all I can ask for. … I was good (condition-wise). Just got to keep pushing through. Got to be competitive in every situation. So that’s all I really clung to and came out on top at the end.”

The Warriors, which finished second in the team race, kicked off the champions when freshman Anthony DiAndrea improved to 13-1 with the gold medal at 106. He scored two pins and then major decisioned Ridge’s Tanner Connelly 12-1 in the final.

“It’s nice having a good, solid 106 and a solid heavyweight,” Huff said. “They’re like the anchors of the team. It puts us in a good spot in not only dual meets, but tournaments like today.”

The Warriors also have an anchor in the middle. Christian Calvo captured the 150-pound title with a dominant afternoon, winning by a pair of first-period pins and then 17-5 over Bridgewater-Raritan’s Dane Sorensen in the final.

Calvo, though, wasn’t taking anything for granted. In last year’s SCT quarterfinal, Sorensen caught him for the fall in 1:56. Calvo rebounded with a 16-0 win in the third-place match over Sorensen.

“He had a couple good moves, but we had a game plan,” Calvo said. “My coach and I, and that’s what we executed. When you stay focused and stay within yourself, it will come.”

Now, the senior gets his name as SCT champ enshrined in the wrestling room.

Huff said, “I think Christian thought he deserved to have his name on the board. We have championship boards. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen last year, so he’s had a chip on his shoulder all season.”

Montgomery’s Allen shows improvement

Montgomery senior Lucas Allen doesn’t look all that much different from last season, in which he reached the Region 5 final at 215. But if you ask him, he’s a total new man on the mat.

“I gained probably 25 pounds in the offseason,” he said. “I was pushing 230 and then it just all came off and what I was left with was about 215. Last year, I was hovering 206, 207. So that was 100 percent something that did something for me.”

As in, he feels stronger against bigger wrestlers. The proof is in the hand raises.

Saturday, Allen edged Hillsborough’s Matt Jones 3-1 in overtime in the 215-pound final with a winning ankle pick.

Last season, Jones beat Allen three times – 10-2 in the SCT quarterfinals, 7-4 in the District 17 final and 7-4 in a dual. They met Dec. 30 with Allen winning on an injury default.

Allen also seemed to figure out how to wrestle Jones, which is shorter than him.

“It’s lethal for me to get under him,” Allen said. “He’s got so much weight. My body is all distributed and he can kind of fold me in half.”

So, Allen does feel stronger than last season?

“You have no idea,” he said.

Ridge’s Kolshorn repeats

Ridge’s Tim Kolshorn fell behind Montgomery’s Jackson Obe 4-1 after the first period in the 138-pound final. The key to coming back – stay cool.

“I just had to keep calm cause if I was panicking I would have made more mistakes,” the Ridge senior said. “So, I had to learn from the first two takedowns.”

Kolshorn was able to tie it with an escape and takedown in the second period and another takedown off a scramble with about 30 seconds left.

In last year’s SCT semifinal at 126, Kolshorn edged Obe 8-6 en route to the championship.

“I knew he was a good wrestler, but yeah, I definitely didn’t expect to go down 4-1,” Kolshorn said. “I was hoping to just to get the lead and build on, it but I had to come up from behind.”

Bridgewater-Raritan crowns two champs

Having champions on the same team in back-to-back weight classes isn’t unusual. After all, they push each other in practice.

Bridgewater-Raritan had gold medalists in Michael Marsigliano (126) and Danny Smith (132). One, however, may have surprised some fans based on last year, but that’s the thing about wrestling – you keep working and things can change.

Marsigliano is Exhibit A of that.

“Last year I started the season off pretty weakly and as I wrestled for this season, I got better and I went to club over the summer,” Marsigliano said. “And this year I guess it all worked out.”

In 2022 as a junior, Marsigliano lost in the SCT first round to Hillsborough’s Corey Iannucci 8-3 at 120 and went 9-14.

Saturday, Marsigliano defeated Iannucci 8-6 in the 126-pound final with two takedowns and two reversals after advancing with a pin and an 11-6 win. He’s now 9-3, already having matched his win total of last season.

Marsigliano said his neutral and bottom positions improved and he credited working with Smith and sophomore Matt Di Eduardo in practice.

“He’s a hardworking kid,” Panthers coach Kyle Murphy said. “He’s got a few really good moves and he sticks with them. He knows what he’s best at and he’s practicing with kids like Danny Smith every day. It’s hard not to get better when you’re working in such a tough room. He’s always had the talent, he just had to put it all together.”

Smith repeated as the 132-pound champion in a tough weight class. In the semifinals, he won  4-3 over Bernards’ Nick Villani, who missed last season but who qualified for the Region 2 tournament in the 2021 spring shortened season.

In the finals, he edged Watchung Hills’ Jordan Bash 7-4, who was a finalist last year at 120. The two have known and practiced with each other for years.

“We’re good friends,” Smith said. “We never wrestled in a match before. We both knew what we do. It was just going to be a battle. I felt pretty good today getting to my stuff.”

Was it tough wrestling a friend?

“I mean, yeah, but it’s six minutes,” Smith said, “and then once that’s over you’re back to normal.”

Rocky Forte Award Winner

Joe LaSpada may be more well known to area sports fans as the legendary head coach of the Bernards boys soccer team. But he was also a pretty good wrestler, winning the 106-pound state title in 1971 for the Mountaineers. He wrestled at Purdue and has been a longtime wrestling assistant at state power North Hunterdon.

Saturday, he was awarded the annual Rocky Forte Award for service to Somerset County wrestling.

The award is named after Forte, who was a three-sport star at Somerville in wrestling, football and baseball. He went on to captain Bloomsburg University’s wrestling team, coached at a handful of places and served as Hillsborough's athletic director for 26 years beginning in 1978. He died in 2009.

First and Third Place Matches

106

1st Place Match - Anthony DiAndrea (Watchung Hills Regional) 13-1 won by major decision over Tanner Connelly (Ridge) 9-1 (MD 12-1)

3rd Place Match - Logan McDermid (Hillsborough) 12-3 won by major decision over Lucas Pelc (Bridgewater-Raritan) 7-5 (MD 13-3)

113

1st Place Match - Tommy Kester (Hillsborough) 9-3 won by decision over Ahmed Amin (Somerville) 7-3 (Dec 5-2)

3rd Place Match - Owen O`Leary (Ridge) 6-4 won by fall over Max Ventura (Pingry School) 6-6 (Fall 2:39)

120

1st Place Match - Joe Aldrich (Somerville) 14-1 won by decision over Sean Markey (Bound Brook HS) 8-4 (Dec 5-0)

3rd Place Match - Cameron Kolakowski (Watchung Hills Regional) 7-5 won by decision over Logan Levine (Bridgewater-Raritan) 9-4 (Dec 10-7)

126

1st Place Match - Michael Marsigliano (Bridgewater-Raritan) 9-3 won by decision over Corey Iannucci (Hillsborough) 10-3 (Dec 8-6)

3rd Place Match - Ryan Engle (Ridge) 8-2 won by fall over Jake Markey (Bound Brook HS) 6-6 (Fall 3:36)

132

1st Place Match - Daniel Smith (Bridgewater-Raritan) 11-2 won by decision over Jordan Bash (Watchung Hills Regional) 9-4 (Dec 7-4)

3rd Place Match - Nick Villani (Bernards) 10-2 won by decision over Gavin Duran (Ridge) 8-2 (Dec 8-3)

138

1st Place Match - Tim Kolshorn (Ridge) 9-0 won by decision over Jackson Obe (Montgomery) 9-1 (Dec 6-5)

3rd Place Match - Lorenzo Percario (Watchung Hills Regional) 12-3 won by decision over Zachary Liu (Bridgewater-Raritan) 6-4 (Dec 2-0)

144

1st Place Match - Lucas Marchese (Somerville) 15-1 won by major decision over Charles Levine (Pingry School) 9-2 (MD 8-0)

3rd Place Match - Matthew Di Eduardo (Bridgewater-Raritan) 8-3 won by decision over Cody Pritzlaff (Watchung Hills Regional) 8-6 (Dec 8-1)

150

1st Place Match - Christian Calvo (Watchung Hills Regional) 8-1 won by major decision over Dane Sorensen (Bridgewater-Raritan) 9-4 (MD 17-5)

3rd Place Match - Jake Caldwell (Bernards) 10-2 won in overtime over Matt Miller (Hillsborough) 11-5 (OT 6-4)

157

1st Place Match - Ryan Closterman (Somerville) 12-3 won by decision over Harry Liu (Watchung Hills Regional) 9-4 (Dec 5-1)

3rd Place Match - Jason Weaver (Pingry School) 10-2 won by decision over Lucas Velando (Manville Hs) 10-4 (Dec 3-0)

165

1st Place Match - Jack Miller (Hillsborough) 12-2 won by decision over Danny Wildgoose (Manville Hs) 11-3 (Dec 3-1)

3rd Place Match - Kevin Taylor (Ridge) 9-2 won by decision over Malik Reid (Franklin) 8-4 (Dec 4-2)

175

1st Place Match - Trip Freitag (Manville Hs) 10-4 won by decision over Steven Shimko (Bridgewater-Raritan) 6-5 (Dec 2-1)

3rd Place Match - Fabian Acuna (Somerville) 13-4 won by decision over Peter Quandt (Hillsborough) 8-8 (Dec 5-1)

190

1st Place Match - Joey Witcoski (Hillsborough) 12-1 won by decision over Ryan Turner (Ridge) 6-3 (Dec 8-2)

3rd Place Match - Geoffrey Mathis (Manville Hs) 12-2 won by decision over Terrence Hanratty (Bernards) 8-5 (Dec 5-4)

215

1st Place Match - Lucas Allen (Montgomery) 9-1 won in overtime over Matt Jones (Hillsborough) 6-2 (OT 3-1)

3rd Place Match - Reilly Cavanaugh (Pingry School) 10-2 won by decision over Christopher Oliver (Ridge) 8-3 (Dec 7-2)

285

1st Place Match - Hunter Seubert (Watchung Hills Regional) 5-0 won in double overtime over Christian Quandt (Hillsborough) 10-4 (2-OT 3-2)

3rd Place Match - Pablo Britez (Bernards) 9-4 won by fall over Adekunle Fakorede (Pingry School) 8-4 (Fall 3:45)

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: SCT Wrestling Notebook: A look at the champions not from Hillsborough