Old Bridge finishes what it started at Greater Middlesex Tournament - Wrestling recap
They looked at the team scores and realized it was there to be had. So the Old Bridge wrestling team went ahead and took it. The Knights captured two weights, as Temiloluva Odumba and Zach Florio came through in the final round.
But the bulk of the work, as far as ending St. Joseph of Metuchen’s three-year stranglehold on the Greater Middlesex Tournament, had already taken place when that round started. “We looked at the team scores and we felt comfortable with where we were,” Old Bridge coach John Post said. “We were able to tell the guys to concentrate on their individual matches and not worry about the team scores.” Odumba, fresh from an 18-6 major decision over Metuchen’s top-seeded Daniel Montemurro in the semis, may have benefitted most from this advice. He wrapped up the 190-pound crown with a 7-5 decision over second-seeded Felipe Granadiero of South River. That victory completed a tour-de-force in which the 13th-seeded Odumba defeated the fourth, fifth, first and second seeds. “He’s someone that we were just hoping would get some confidence,” Post said. “He started the season at 175, where he won a wrestle-off, then lost a second wrestle-off to Alex Kay, who finished third this weekend. He’s shown some flashes of brilliance. It’s been our top goal this season to get him to believe.”Zachary Florio followed Odumba’s win by collecting the bracket sheet at 215 pounds. A 20-10 major decision over Carteret’s Wilfredo Villalongo completed his route to the top of the podium. His other three bouts were pins. Those pins took on importance when it was time to figure out the team scores. St. Joseph’s had five champions to the Knights’ two, but Old Bridge’s ability to close out its bouts -- and the fact that the Knights moved 13 wrestlers into the semifinal round -- made the difference. Old Bridge won the tournament for the first time in its history. The school began in 1995, when Madison Central and Cedar Ridge High Schools were combined under one roof.“We have a lot of depth,” Post said. “And we got a lot of bonus points early. We had a narrow dual match with St. Joe’s and a couple of things didn’t go our way, but we felt like we were a better tournament team.” The Knights fell short at 106, where top-seeded David Peoples suffered a technical fall loss to Monroe’s second-seeded Kyle Capodanno, and at 113, where Woodbridge’s second-seeded Noah Perez scored his fourth pin of the tournament at the expense of top-seeded Gavin Young in the final.With just two finals still to be wrestled at that point, Old Bridge had locked up a bigger prize. Both of those bouts fell to St. Joseph’s; top-seeded Julian Arango closed out the 120-pound bracket with an 11-3 major decision over St. Thomas’ Nikolas Rivas, then 126-pounder Nico DeRado pinned St. Thomas’ Nicholas Campanelli in 1:33 to wrap up that bracket. Morgan Schwarz , Tyler Whitford and Jason Gross also won their weights for Red-Division champ St. Joseph’s.“I think we came in with high hopes,” Post said. “Winning the Red Division was important, but we didn’t reach that goal. We’re still looking to compete in the sectionals. We know Jackson and Monroe are out there and we’re looking at them.”I've covered high school sports for Advance Media since January, 2024. I'm a graduate of Trenton State College and I've covered high school sports in South and Central Jersey for a little over 40 years. I've...
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