After a really tough 39-27 loss at Kittatinny the night before, you’d think that many teams coming back the following day for a morning quad would get themselves with a tough match like they did last night. Not Hackettstown. With a strong sophomore class, they came back today to earn impressive showings against three quality teams in their home gym, Sparta, Verona, and Mendham. 

Sparta vs Hackettstown 

The home team of Hackettstown started out their day by getting a surprising win over a really scrappy, young, but injured Sparta team, 42-40. Sparta who was missing their 190lbs of Luke Brown who was out due to an injury and expected to be back early next week, did all that they could do with Hackettstown. The quad started at 138 lbs, Sparta jumped out to an early 28-0 lead over Hackettstown with what was looking like to be a runaway match for the Spartans. However, the momentum of the match started to shift the other way as at 175lbs, Darwin Disla for the Tigers was able to put Hackettstown on the board for their first win of the day with a 2nd period over his Sparta opponent. 

After Sparta received a forfeit at 190lbs and Hackettstown received two forfeits at 215lbs and 285lbs, made the deficit for a 34-18 lead for Sparta. The highlight of the match came when Tiger sophomore Joe Rowinski was able to perform an offensive performance over 2023 Girls State Champion and 2024 Girls 4th Place Finisher at States, Paige Weiss as he piled up a 13-1 lead before the pin towards the end of the 3rd period.

“[Paige] is a great opponent, I just went out and did what I was able to do to get the win over a really good opponent,” Rowinski said. With Rowinski’s win, he was able to get the Tigers their first lead of the match 36-34 with two bouts left.

Another outstanding sophomore at 132lbs for Hackettstown, Giovanni Gutierrez, started out the bout with a close 3-1 lead after two periods. After Bruseo was working for a turn, he was unable to do so and decided to cut Gutierrez to make the deficit 4-1. Once Gutierrez was able to obtain the three point takedown, he was able to tack on additional back points that eventually was called as a fall at the 5:15 mark in the third period. With Gutierrez’ win, it helped clinch the Tigers’ first team win on the day. The match between the Spartans and the Tigers for sure, was a pin festival to say the least, only having one match that lasted for a full six minute bout. 

Verona vs Mendham

To kick start the day, Mendham was able to get themselves the first win for their team on the day over Verona with a 54-24 victory. Both of these teams had some wrestlers that opened up some wrestling fans eyes  and it started out with the 138 lbs weight class with a pin at the end of the 1st period for Jesse Wagner of Verona to jump out 6-0. Then a 13-3 major decision win for Jacob Fehnel of Mendham to cut the lead for the Hillbillies, 6-4. Other top wrestlers like 150lber Joel Gonzalez and 285lber John Stockelberg for Verona who earned pins for their team. However, the forfeits that Mendham received is what helped the Minutemen keep them in control for the rest of the match as they were able to prevail really nice wins from 165lber Jackson Langone (who won a 12-5 decision), 190lber Paul LeBow with a nice pin for the 1st period, and tech fall from 106lber, Aidan Reilly (17-1 at the 2:00 mark). Reilly seemed to have been happy from his win this morning but knew that there was more work that needed to be done during the day. 

“You have push it to make these wins happen,” Reilly said after their win last over Parsippany Hills and having to get ready for today’s quad. “We want to make the sectionals as does everyone on this team, so it’s important to work at it [and to get wins like this].” 

Mendham vs Sparta

During the second round of the quad, Mendham and Sparta went at it against one another. Sparta did all in what they could to hang around with Mendham, however, due to the injuries and illnesses that Sparta has been facing a lot of this season, they fell a little shorter than what they expected as Mendham came out on top with a 48-29. The match started out to be a little closer than anticipated as the Spartans started out with a pin for one of the pound for pound wrestlers, Logan Hrenenko and a tech fall from Sean Brown at both 144 lbs and 150 lbs respectively. It then became a Mendham showing as many of them poised victories Owen Lieberwirth, Jackson Langone, Ralph Langone, and a huge pin from 285lber Braiden Yocum. Trailing 3-0 after one period, Yocum picked bottom, got the escape he needed, got the takedown, threw in the half-nelson, and got the pin that he needed to keep them afloat in the match. Before the match had even started, Yocum had a little bit of a strategy to go into his match and how to set the pace for himself to make things work out to his favor.

“I was just going to tiring him out,” Yocum said of his strategy. “I didn’t want to go for too many risk moves. [I was just] going for the legs, keeping him down [on the mat], that’s what I was focused on.” 

Another legitimate win came at 120lbs when Eduardo Bollera earned himself a high scoring affair with a 19-16 decision win over a quality opponent of Paige Weiss from Sparta. 

Verona vs Hackettstown

Coming off of a win from earlier today, Hackettstown knew that they needed to face off against a team that they have grown some familiarity with and has had some back and forth battles with over the years. Hackettstown was able to do just that as they earned a 50-30 win over the Verona Hillbillies to improve to 2-0 on the day. One of the key highlights of the day came to the 106lber for Hackettstown, Steven Vidal who earned himself a tech fall 17-1 at the 3:46 mark over John Loudon. Vidal, who is one of the young sophomores for the Tigers, said that he was able to read his opponent right as the first whistle blew. From there, he fed off of that energy and was able to get the workman-like victory to put his team in a good position.

“[It] gives me a good stance of how [my opponent] feels about the match and how I feel about the match. I like going in aggressively and knowing that he shot first so I got a bit nervous,” Vidal said. “When I realized [my opponent’s strength], I was able to crank it up a little bit and [it went well for me], he said. 

Verona vs Sparta

Before leaving Hackettstown High School, both teams are looking to win their first match of the day. While in a solid quad, there is a team that leaves the gym without a team win. Sparta came out on top with a victory 57-24 over Verona.  One of the wrestlers that Sparta Head Coach Dan Trappe highlighted in showcasing their ability to improve in the second half of the season was Trevor Ekeland who wrestled at 165lbs and 175lbs on the day wherever the team needed him to wrestle at. Ekleand earned himself amongst a couple other Sparta wrestlers a 3-0 record in the quad with three pins. Despite the teams two earlier losses to Hackettstown and Mendham, his focus was to not panic and to only focus one match at a time.

“I was just looking at it one match at a time,” Ekeland said of his performance. “I wanted to get some pins for my team because we were down at some points and a little tough in some areas [in our lineup] so I needed to get a pin to [keep my team close in these matches today].”

Sparta has been dealing with various injuries and illness all throughout their lineup. But that still didn’t keep them away from the competition from today. The coaching staff at Sparta has had the motto this season in just keep wrestling and to keep the team situation in mind regardless of the experience one may have in the sport.

“[Coach Trappe] has been telling us to wrestle tough, wrestle tough, wrestle aggressive, just keep wrestling no matter what our [team] situation is. Don’t get pinned no matter what so we don’t let down our team and work hard in the room and on the mat,” Ekeland said of the teams continuous effort to wrestle despite having injuries up and down the lineup.

Mendham vs Hackettstown 

With both teams having 2 wins on the day, only one of these teams are going to come out on top. Both teams have built a little rivalry between one another for many years but have had mutual respect for one another both on and off the mat, and one of them, at the end of the day will shake hands and respect each other’s accomplishments. Hackettstown (the home team), was able to do just that and showed so much class in their 54-29 victory over the Mendham Minutemen, that included multiple exciting victories for Hackettstown earning multiple come from victories from wrestlers such as 285lber Samir Mrad who was trailing 5-4 with around a 1 minute left to go. With about 14 seconds left to go in the bout, Mrad got himself into a Peterson like move for the reversal and back points while slipping in a half-nelson when his body was able to obtain enough momentum to secure a pin with just 7 seconds to go in the bout. The Hackettstown bench, the fans, and Mrad were ecstatic to get the victory that he needed for the team. 

“He got tired real fast, I wore him out. He tried sinking the arm in, but at the end of the day, I rolled him [to his back to pin him]. I have [respect] for [Langone] and I know he has to wrestle but I have to also,” Mrad said of his victory. Oddly enough, besides one forfeit win from earlier in the day and sitting out a match in the second round, this was Mrad’s first official match on the day. So for him to go out on a whim and get the win for himself, is a surreal feeling for Mrad. 

Additional excitement came immediately after Mrad’s victory, Steven Vidal has an impressive win over 106lber Aidan Reilly of Mendham. Trailing 10-4 in the third period, Vidal started out on top, sunk in the power-half and was able to sink in deep for a huge six points for Hackettstown. 

Coming up next week?

All four teams will be back to action full of competitive matches and some familiar teams heading into next week. Hackettstown will be back to action with home matches facing up against Morristown (01/21) and Somerville (01/23). Sparta will face West Morris (01/21), Delbarton (01/23), and then a home tri match with Ramapo and Westwood (01/25). Mendham will face Montville (01/21) and then they will travel to Mount Olive for the Morris County Tournament (01/24-25). Verona will spend the week preparing for the Essex County Tournament (01/22-23) at the Codey Arena in West Orange, NJ followed by a Saturday morning home match versus Mahwah (01/25). There’s still a lot of wrestling left and it wouldn’t surprise me to see many of these teams make a run the next two weeks in gaining PowerPoints to make a run for a state sectional appearance.