By Donald J. Brower

Last season did not end the way the Whippany Park Wildcats wrestling team wanted it to. Despite winning seven of its last eight dual meets, the squad finished 14th in the Morris County Tournament. After refocusing over the summer and knowing 13 starters from last year's squad were returning, they realized they had a chance to make some waves. So far in this young season, those waves have been of the tidal variety.

Led by six finalists and two champions, the Whippany Park Wildcats outpaced second place Eastern Vikings 163-142 to capture the Lenape Valley Holiday Tournament in Stanhope.

It is the second tournament victory for the squad in the last week, having captured a share of the Kris Hicok Memorial Tournament on Dec. 21st in Dover.

The team was incredibly balanced having 12 of its 14 wrestlers finish fourth or higher. For head coach and alumni Devon Engleberger, with an experienced team this season it was all about the details.

"We have been working hard on improving technique and the little things," Engleberger, in his second year at the helm, said. "Going both ways on the mat was a key thing to teach this team as well as conditioning."

That conditioning was never more evident that in the finals where both of Whippany Park's champions, Nick Serafini (160) and Vin Mattia (182) needed to go to the tie breaker to capture their titles. Mattia knows how much time this year's squad has been putting in.

"We worked really hard this summer as a team to take that next step," Mattia, a senior, said. "All of that hard work is starting to pay off and this is awesome."

While Whippany Park may have won the team title, they did not have the most champions. That honor goes to both Eastern and Montville with four a piece. the Vikings also had the Outstanding Wrestler of the Tournament in Brock Warrell who took the crown at 152.

1-Whippany Park 163. 2-Eastern 142. 3-Lenape Valley 133. 4-Montville 132. 5-JFK Iselin 84. 6-North Plainfield 62.5. 7-Wallkill Valley 55. 8-Blair "B" Team 50. 9-Butler 42.

106-Ronald Rumsby, Montville dec. Jack Francesoni, Eastern 7-4

113-Zach Jones, Blair "B" tech fall Zach Merkley, Lenape Valley 16-1 5:14

120-Brandon Barbella, Eastern dec. Matt Mastrobuono, Whippany Park 5-2

126-Michael Glasser, Montville dec. Mitch Graessle, Whippany Park 1-0

132-Collin Mitchell, Eastern p. Aaron Arzon, Lenape Valley 1:45

138-Anthony Fano, Montville dec. Dominic Mulhearn, North Plainfield 10-6

145-Ron Barbella, Eastern dec. Joe Prato, Whippany Park 5-1

152-Brock Warrell, Eastern dec. Karl Buttita, JFK Iselin 12-5

160-Nick Serafini, Whippany Park dec. Dan Castiglia, Butler 8-5 TB

170-Brandon Farrell, JFK Iselin dec. Joey LaBell, Lenape Valley 8-3

182-Vin Mattia, Whippany Park dec. DJ Barrett, Lenape Valley 2-1 TB

195-JT Valley, North Plainfield dec. Stevan Webb, Whippany Park 6-4 SV

220-Anthony DeLeon, JFK Iselin dec. Laurence Bueno, Montville 4-3

285-Ethan Fox, Montville p. Izzy Brooks, Eastern 3:05