O.B Wrestling Festival wraps up tomorrow

MARIE ORTIZ Brian Ackerman (l), of East Brunswick, has a leg up on Joe Asastasio, of Manalapan, during a match at the Old Bridge Wrestling Festival on Saturday.

Central Jersey Duals finals begin at 7 p.m. today

and tomorrow

By Doug mckenzie

The first leg of the 26th annual Old Bridge Wrestling Festival was held over the weekend with a number of local grapplers walking away with top finishes.

JERRY WOLKOWITZ Travis Blasco, 12, of Old Bridge, maintains control of his opponent at the Old Bridge Wrestling Festival on Saturday.

Team Old Bridge walked away with the high school club division title after scoring 64 team points, 11¹/2 more than second place Reflex Wrestling. Although the squad from Old Bridge finished second to the Black Widows team from Pennsylvania in the Grand Championship Team Score (best average points per wrestler) they placed the most wrestlers in the finals, held at the Old Bridge Sports Complex on Sunday.

Mike Carro gave Team Old Bridge their first win, when he defeated his teammate Vin Iodaci 5-0 in the 122-pound final. Vin Iodaci’s brother Sal had better luck, defeating Jersey Lightning’s Morgan Lobello 9-1 in the 182-pound final.

Aaron Suozzo gave Team Old Bridge their only other win, when he pinned St. Augustine’s Frank McGrath just 27 seconds into the 201-pound final.

Team Old Bridge also got a couple of second-place finishes from Travis Blasco (90-pounds) and Justin Smigelsky (110-pound), which helped in their quest for the team title.

Other local wrestlers who were successful in the high school club division were Monroe’s Tony Marks, who defeated St. Augustine’s Joe Federici in the 153-pound final, and Toms River’s Anthony Allaca, who won the heavyweight division.

Only three local wrestlers made it to the finals in the junior high school freestyle division. Kendall Park’s Garret Nasdeo started things off with a pin of Union’s Dave Greenwald 1:43 into the 70-pound final. In the 91-pound final, Old Bridge’s Travis Blasco took second, after being defeated by Shamong’s Ian Sullivan in the final.

Matawan’s Ashley Green also lost in the finals, finishing second in the heavyweight division to North Plainfield’s Manny Kakos.

The open collegiate division also saw three local grapplers in the finals. Garret Nasdeo’s older brother Kyle kept the family winning streak alive by defeating Dover’s Chris Rebels 14-3 in the 136-pound final. South River’s Bill Deniz managed to finish second in the 161-pound class, as did East Brunswick’s Sean Daly in the 181-pound class and North Brunswick’s Dan Rubenstein in the 157-pound class.

Despite the success of local wrestlers in all of the divisions, the local youngsters in the elementary school division certainly fared the best.

A pair of local kids took first-place titles. South Brunswick’s Sarah Dorsey was the first to celebrate after she beat Old Bridge’s Phil Sandford 4-2 in the 50-pound final. She was later joined by Old Bridge’s Stephen Fallon, who defeated Anthony Luma of Egg Harbor 8-6 to take the 66-pound final.

Although they were the only local kids to take first-place trophies home, Monroe’s Thomas Himmerlich (38 pounds), South Brunswick’s San White (53 pounds) and Mike MacMurray (56 pounds), Monroe’s Grant Herring (111 pounds) and Sayreville’s Shaun Bedding (132 pounds) all took seconds in their respective weight classes.

With the individual tournaments out of the way, the festival now turns to the Central Jersey Summer Duals, which started on Monday and will wrap up on Thursday night.

This year’s duals are expected to be highly competitive, drawing some the top wrestlers in both Middlesex and Monmouth Counties.

Among some of the top teams in the area which will be sending wrestlers are Greater Middlesex Conference perennial powerhouse South Plainfield, Old Bridge and South Brunswick, as well as Bound Brook, one of the top teams out of Somerset County.

Other teams scheduled to compete are Colonia, East Brunswick, Edison, Howell, J.F. Kennedy, North Brunswick, and Perth Amboy.

South Plainfield has been the team to beat in recent years, winning the duals the last three years in a row. However, this year, both old Bridge and South Brunswick are expected to compete for the over-all title.

Under the tournament’s format, each of the 12 participating teams will wrestle two dual matches each night with the teams split into two six-team groups. The playoffs will then pit the top teams from those matches against each other tonight and tomorrow night.

This marks the fifth year of the Central Jersey Duals, which started as a four team tournament in 1996 and quickly grew to a 16-team event last year. This year, the field was dropped to 10 teams due to space constrictions.

Tonight’s and tomorrow night’s matches will begin at about 7 o’clock.