Beyer’s Big Pin, Montuore’s Dominance, Lead Wolfpack to Four Straight

By David Yaskulka
Photos from Jen Sheppard, Sheryl Reed

Delbarton had just dominated West Morris Central wrestlers Tuesday, and now their 150 pounder Kurt Beyer was losing 13-0 in front of a packed home crowd of youth wrestlers and their families Thursday night (Jan. 9).

Until… Boom!

In an instant, Beyer turned the tide on the Wolfpack’s week, securing the cradle for a come-from-behind pin over one of Morris Hills’ best wrestlers. The crowd erupted, WMC went on to win 55-24, and then defeated Roxbury, Livingston and St. Benedict’s Saturday (Jan. 11). Coach Chris Marold’s squad is now 8-4.

“The team is really coming together, with guys stepping up in big spots due to illness,” said senior captain Mark Montuore (113 lbs.), who went 5-0 for the week, pinning every opponent. He’s ended eight consecutive opponents’ days early and now has 96 career victories.

“Nothing’s better than performing well in front of the future wrestlers,” Montuore said, referring to Thursday’s Wolfpack Night ceremony. Over 100 Long Valley youth wrestlers ran out on the mat in front of their cheering families.

Freshman Jonathan Cabarle (138) and sophomore Jacob Harrison (132) also went 5-0 this week, Cabarle winning his seventh straight, six of them max-points wins for the team.

Sophomore Brody Neill (120), junior Robert Fazzino (165), freshman Chris Kowalik (190) and junior captain Tommy Borgia (HWT) all won four straight after Delbarton. Junior Michael Borgia (215) added three wins, with Beyer, junior Hayden Hurst (144) and freshman Deacon Frayne (175) adding two each.

“There is always room for improvement, but we are hitting our peak,” said Tommy Borgia. “I’m super excited to see what we can do at sectional [team playoffs] time.”

Pack Dominates St. Benedict’s Behind Fazzino and Neill 58-14

Since falling to NJ’s (and possibly the nation’s) best Alessio Perentin at Delbarton, Fazzino nailed his fourth straight victory, dominating one of St. Benedict’s best, senior region qualifier Zahier Chiles, by major decision 13-5. St. Benedict’s was the third of three matches the Wolfpack swept at Saturday’s Roxbury quad.

“Progress towards my goal of qualifying for the state championship was thrown off a bit at the beginning of the season,” said Fazzino, who started 3-7 against brutal competition. “But as I get my touch back I feel my goals are realistic.” His favorite moment of the week was “grinding out a win against a quality opponent [Chiles] and seeing my teammates root me on.”

Neill took out another district qualifier for the Pack in dominating fashion with a 32 second fall as the Pack sent a message with its 58-14 win.

Montuore, Harrison, Cabarle, Hurst, Beyer and Tommy Borgia all nabbed first period pins, while Kowalik was the laggard of the group, waiting until the second period to nab his fourth consecutive pin.

Kowalik, Frayne and J. Harrison Pins Lead Pack Over Livingston 47-29

Harrison, Frayne and Kowalik pinned top Lancer wrestlers (who were a combined 26-9) to lead the Pack to a 47-29 win over District 11 foe Livingston.

Victory didn’t look certain as WMC fell behind 23-14 after consecutive wins from Livingston’s best, district medalist Chris Taddeo, Alex Gliatis and state qualifier Alex Diorio.

But Fazzino turned the tide back Packwards with a 10-3 win to tee up consecutive pins up top from Frayne, Kowalik and the Borgia boys. Montuore finished the scoring with another pin.

Neill started the match with a tech. Cabarle added a dramatic third-period near-fall and ride for a 12-8 victory to account for Wolfpack scoring.

Neill and Michael Borgia Lead WMC Over Roxbury 50-26

After Montuore gave the Wolfpack an early one point lead by pin, Neill scored early and often against Roxbury’s best, #29 ranked 12-2 senior Daniel Visha, before patiently settling in for the third period fall. WMC never looked back against the home squad Gaels, winning 50-26.

Michael Borgia decked one of Roxbury’s six top-100 wrestlers, Patrick Shivas, to help lead WMC’s pinfall parade that featured Cabarle, Fazzino (against a winning-record grappler), and Kowalik. Harrison added a tech, and Hurst impressed with a 9-4 victory.

Roxbury’s other top-100 wrestlers all won, including senior region qualifier Anthony Fedorchak, Linn Crawn champs Jaedon Montalvo and Nicholas Kemmerer, and Charlie Bacinsky.

Beyer’s Blast Beckons Bevy of Big Wins as Pack Dominates Morris Hills 55-24 on Wolfpack Night

Junior Alexander Casarrubias, one of the Scarlet Knights’ three highest ranked competitors, scored the first 13 points of the night. But Beyer, choosing top position after Morris Hills deferred, secured the cradle and pin for a huge upset victory.

It was a 12 point team score swing for the #261 ranked Beyer, who was nearly pinned by the #54 ranked Linn Crawn bronze medalist – perhaps WMC’s biggest upset of the young season. The crowd erupted, and after just one bout, smelled victory in the air. It was a perfect introduction to varsity wrestling for the large crowd of Long Valley youth wrestlers and their families attending Wolfpack Night.

After MH evened the score, Fazzino (165) put the Wolfpack up for good by pinfall.

Frayne fell behind to fellow freshman phenom Frank DiMarzio, the Knights’ highest ranked grappler at #43. After multiple headlock attempts proved futile, the last one did not, and Frayne delivered a big swing bout, pinning for the Pack.

Frayne’s fellow freshman beast Kowalik followed with a pin of his own.

Michael Borgia was the only team member to put in a full 6 minutes of work, riding out his opponent in the night’s only match to go the distance, winning 5-3.

Co-captains Borgia and Montuore, and Cabarle added to the Pack pin party, with the rookie nailing an impressive pin off a Peterson move against a tough opponent.

Tech falls from Neill, and most impressively, from Harrison over district medalist Josh Levin contributed 10 more to the Wolfpack scoring.

“Last year, I wrestled the same guy and won 14 to 11,” reflected Harrison. “This year, I won by tech fall which highlights the progress I’ve made and how the hard work I’ve put in has paid off. Competing against someone I barely beat last year and coming out stronger this year reflects the strides I’ve taken in my growth as a wrestler.”

WMC pinned or teched three of MH’s four highest ranked wrestlers.

According to Long Valley Youth wrestling leader Lloyd Fleming, the young guns have been wrestling hard, averaging about a tournament every week, with many wrestlers getting upwards of 25 matches in a season.

“ I always remember running out on Wolfpack night as a little kid, and it was one of the best experiences ever,” reflected HWT Borgia. “So to get a win in front of all those young kids is really special.”

NJ #1 Delbarton Dominates Wolfpack Behind Some of the Nation’s Best

Jayden James and Alessio Parentin, both ranked #2 in the nation, led Delbarton’s all-star team of grapplers to a 56-18 win over the Wolfpack Tuesday night (Jan. 7) in Morristown. US Open bronze medalists Tommy Marchetti and Nicholas Schwartz, Super32 sixth-placer Braden Jones, 2x youth state champ Jesse DeNegri, and undefeated Carl Betz were among the Delbarton winners.

Frayne was WMC’s most competitive against this group, losing a major to DeNegri.

Montuore and Harrison provided WMC’s firepower, both providing first period pins against Delbarton back-ups (who like Penn State back-ups who have won NCAA championships, can be extremely talented).

Delbarton is once again ranked the #1 team in New Jersey, and #5 in the nation (FloW).

The Wolfpack is no stranger to top teams. From the Jan. 6 FullCircle team rankings, WMC already topped #13 Pope John, fallen to HM Caldwell and Delaware Valley, and competed with #16 St. Joseph’s at Goles. #17 Mt. Olive looms.

Delbarton sophomore HWT August Moser, who shocked the crowd pinning Borgia, is a youth state champ (like Borgia), and is now 9-6 for Delbarton competing on the biggest stages including National Hall of Fame Duals, PowerAde, and the Catholic Duals.

Wins and Losses

WMC win leaders are Tommy Borgia (17-1), followed by Neill (14-3), Kowalik (14-4), Jacob Harrison (14-5), followed by Montuore (13-4), Frayne (12-8), Michael Borgia (10-5), Cabarle (9-4). The team now has 14 starters with four or more wins.

Tommy has 14 pins (94%), Mark (63%), Chris (56) and Deacon 10 (50); Jonathan (58%), Brody (44%), and Jacob 7 (37%); Michael (33) and Robert 5 (29).

Currently the team has 87 wins from underclassmen, and 55 from upperclassmen (and just 14 of those from seniors Montuore and Joseph Wagner).

Sublime Six Streak

Based on this reporter’s TrackWrestling.com research, Tommy Borgia’s streak of 12 consecutive bouts providing maximum points for the team may have been the longest in school history. At minimum, it’s the longest in over a decade. Since Delbarton ended the streak, Tommy’s added four more in a row (so far).

Most consecutive 6-point matches (pin, forfeit, disqualification, injury forfeit) since 2013-14:

Rankings Update

Jan. 6 Full Circle has Brody #9 and Tommy #10.

NJ.com’s first individual ranking on Jan. 7 did not include any WMC wrestlers (they rank top eight).

In the Daily Record Morris/Sussex Top 10, WMC’s quad win leapfrogged the Pack over Kittatinny for 6th place, still behind #3 Pope John which they defeated.

At RankWrestlers.com as of 1/12, Neill is #9, Montuore and Borgia #34, Jacob Harris #43, Kowalik #54, Fazzino #59, Frayne #62, Michael Borgia #70, Beyer #141, Mason Vazquez #169, Hurst #175, Cabarle #183, Garcia #213, Jacob Reed #216, Wagner #226 and Jack Sheppard #298 among WMC wrestlers in the top-half of all in NJ.

Next Up

WMC travels to Mt. Olive Jan. 15, Passaic Valley Jan 18, and Sparta Jan 21, before the much-anticipated Morris County Tournament at Mt. Olive Jan. 24-25, where perennial parochial champion Delbarton will not be competing. Delbarton’s dominance has long been controversial since they bring many wrestlers from outside the county to become our county champs.

WMC returns home to face High Point Jan 28, and Immaculata Feb. 1.

Sectional (team) playoffs are February 10-16 for schools that qualify.

All schools’ starting wrestlers compete in the district individual championships Feb 22, with WMC in District 11 at Nutley, also facing Belleville, Glen Ridge, Governor Livingston, Kearny, Livingston, Montclair, Verona and West Orange.

D11 medalists (top-3) will compete in the Region 3 Championship Feb 28- Mar 1.

Top-four finishers from each of the eight regions advance to the NJSIAA State Championship in Atlantic City Mar. 6-8 where Wolfpack legends including (this century) Brandon Dean, Marisa Di Paolo (Girls States, twice), Colin Loughney, Justin LeMay, Marco Gaita, Shane Metzler (thrice), Nick Matthews, Dillon Landi and most recently Brody Neill climbed the podium in hallowed Boardwalk Hall.

About David Yaskulka

David began living his sportswriter dream to avoid concession duty when his sons Noah and Ben began wrestling for the Wolfpack in 2012. He is a passionate sustainability advocate and pet industry executive, serves as Board Chair of the Pet Sustainability Coalition, Board Director at Greater Good Charities; and Board Advisor at Arch Pet Food, rePurpose Global plastic action platform, and New Zealand Trade & Enterprise.

He invites all WMC wrestlers and their families to connect with him (and with each other!) on LinkedIn.