Q: You’re a Seagull Wres-tling Club member, how impor-tant is club wrestling if youwant to excel in high school?

A: I think it’s pretty impor-

Schalick’s Newt Richardsonhas already been turning headsdespite being just a sophomore.He’s the top seed at 120 poundsin District 31 and was a catalystfor the team during their 16-winseason. That run was even morememorable considering theteam won just three matcheslast year. Richardson recentlyspoke with The Mat Pack aboutthe season and wrestling ingeneral.

Question: How has this yearbeen different than last year asa team?

Answer: It’s been a littledifferent. We’re working a lot

THE INSIDESTUFF

C10 Friday, February 17, 2012 T H E D A I LY J O U R N A L

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Vineland’s Eugene Maisonave, top, wrestles Clearview’s David Snyder during a match onFeb. 4. Despite being 19-9, Maisonave is the No. 5 seed at heavyweight in District 31,mainly because he didn’t wrestle last year.STAFF PHOTO/CHARLES J. OLSON

Quality points, pres-tige points, merit,advancement and

pre-seeds—it’sallverycon-fusing.

But that’s what highschool wrestling coacheshad to deal with this yearwhen it came time to theseeding process for dis-tricts,which begin tonight.

The new system, whichwasusedon a trial basislastyear, uses a calculationbasedonawrestler’s20bestmatches to come up with afinal number. That numberisusedto seedthewrestlersin descendingorder.

Despite the new termsand what seems like a“Good Will Hunting”-likeformula, initial reaction tothe seeding process wasgenerally positive. Thequicker seeding meetingwith less room for politicswasthebestpart,accordingto coaches.

“It was much less pain-fulthan in years past,”Mill-ville coach Scott Stay said.“I don’t think there wereany arguments. I still thinkthere are some kinks thatneed to be worked out, but,overall,I can’t complain.”

The system rewards awrestler for previous ad-vancement in the tourna-ment, then awards pointsfor victories based on theopponents’ previous ad-vancement. For instance,beating a wrestler whoplaced seventh in the statethe previous year is worth26 points. Losing to a statechampion still gets you 8points. A wrestler can losepointsforlosingtosomeonewho placed fourth in dis-tricts or worse.

Once the order is deter-mined,head-to-headmatch-upsmove theseeds around,round-robins (A beat B, BbeatC,C beatA) arethrownout and preference is givento themorerecent resultinsplit decisions.

“Seeding at the districtlevel,there’sno perfectsys-

tem,” Delsea athletic direc-tor Steve Iles said. “But itdid take away some of thedebating.”

In the past, wrestlerswere nominated for a seedandthen the district coach-es would vote. The systemcreated plenty of argu-ments between opposingcoaches where alleged fa-voritism and past grudgesmay have come into playwhen determiningseeds.

“If you’re ethical, youvote for the right kid, butthat doesn’t always hap-pen,” Buena coach DougCastellari said.

Enterthe computers.

“It’s the fairest thing asfar as you don’t have anypolitics involved,” Castella-ri said. “It usually worksout.”

Districtseeding tends tobe more controversial thanregionsor states becauseofthe disparityin talentfromthe topof thebracketto thebottom.

“You’re dealing with abroad spectrum of kids atthe district level since noonehas qualified,”Ilessaid.“Sometimes there’s less togo on as far as accomplish-ments.”

Wrestlers who missedtime due to injury, transferrules or sickness are oftenthe center of controversyand the new system doesn’talleviate that completely.

Coachesstillhavetheop-tion to use a wildcardto puta wrestler’s seedup to vote.That wasexercisedfor Del-seasenior MarshallBrooks,who missed time withmononucleosis in January,

has just 16 matches anddidn’t wrestle last year. Hewound up earning a fourthseed at 182 pounds in Dis-trict 31 instead of a No. 7seed.

Oneknockon thesystemis that it rewards upper-classmen because a wres-tler begins the season withpoints based on last year’stournament. Region andstate seeding also heavilyrely on previous advance-ment though.

However, wrestlers willstill have to compete nomatter whattheirseed.

“This tournament is allaboutadvancing tothe statetournament,” Castellarisaid. “If you lookat itin thebig picture, no one is goingtobeleftoutofAtlanticCitybecauseof districtseeds.”

And that’s really whatthispart ofthe seasonis allabout — finding the singlebest wrestlerin each of the14 weight classes in NewJersey.

New district seeding system acomplex, but welcomed, change

PATRICKBUGANSKI

1. Timbe r C reek 21- 3

2. Delsea 22-2

3. Camden Catholic 25-5

4. Paulsboro 20-4

5. Clearview 14-5

6. St. Au gus ti ne 22- 8

7. Buena 16-8

8. Pennsville 17-6

9. Clayton 23-2

10. West Deptford 21-4

11. Had don fi el d 17- 8

12. Shawnee 18-6

13. Cherokee 17-8

14. Egg Harbor Township 17-6

15. Hammont on 23- 6

*Records through Wednesday.

» SouthPlainfieldboastsamiddleof a lineup thatrivals the ’27 New York Yan-kees. The Tigers’ version ofMurderer’s Row has fivewrestlers with a combined157-3 record in consecutiveorder— Troy Heilman (120pounds, 29-3), AnthonyAshnault (126, 32-0), ScottDelVecchio (132, 32-0), TylerHunt (138, 32-0) and CoreyStasenko (145, 32-0).» South Jersey has11undefeatedwrestlersgoinginto districts, onemore than last year at thistime. Thirteen wrestlerscarried unbeaten marks intodistricts in 2010. WinslowTownship’s Robert McNeill(34-0) was second in the statewith 34 wins, one behindWest Morris’ Ryan Harring-ton, going into districts.» Burlington Township’sKevin Devoy (32-0) leadsthe state with 27 pins. Thesenior finished fourth in thestate at 119 pounds lastseason, losing a 5-4 decisionto Buena’s Billy Ward in thethird/fourth bout.» Paulsboro’s RonGentilewill outafter suffering abroken leg in practice onMonday. Gentile finished animpressive freshman season at29-4 and was ranked No. 3 inSouth Jersey at126 pounds.

106

Zach Goranson, Millville 23-7

Joshua Pineda, Vineland 22-6

Sal Marandino, Buena 22-8

Steven Bergamo, St. Augustine 20-11

L uis Riv era , Bue na 12- 9

To m C ar ne y, D el se a 1 5- 13

Hector Marrero, Cumberland 8-8

113

Tom Gattinella, St. Augustine 28-4

J oh n G al lo, S ch al ic k 2 8- 4

Zach Nealis, Vineland 21-6

Connor Palmieri, Buena 21-6

C ha d K ah n, M il lv il le 1 9- 10

120

Newt Richardson, Schalick 30-1

Billy Ward, Buena 29-3

Danny DeTetta, Vineland 14-5

J oh n B or el li, D el se a 1 5- 13

126

Will Elliott, Cumberland 26-3

Elias Garcia, Mil lv il le 19-8

Ed Donahue, St. Augustine 20-12

132

John Hennelly, Delsea 27-4

Jarett Pierott i, Buena 22-10

Jonathon Rordriguez, Vineland 18-9

Cruz Flores, Cumberland 14-7

Jarred Hodges, St. Augustine 18-12

J ar re tt Ke ll y, B ue na 1 6- 11

Rian Lamanteer, Cumberland 9-8

138

Joe Esposito, St. Augustine 29-3

D il la n B er ho f, B ue na 2 7- 4

D eo n H en ry , S ch al ic k 2 1- 10

145

Cur t D el ia, D el se a 30- 1

Dylan Manno, Schal ick 20-10

Richard Morris, Cumberland 14-6

Rico Rivera 18-10

Brandon Muessig, Vineland 13-11

152

Mark Patterson, St. Augustine 31-1

Justin Pierott i, Buena 26-5

Ed Shockley, Mil lv il le 25-5

Z ac h Rah l, S chali ck 25- 7

D av id G re sk , D el se a 1 0- 9

160

Dylan Dobzanski, Delsea 26-4

Tyler Sentman, St. Augustine 26-6

Derrick DeWoody, Delsea 14-10

Carl Hitzelberger, Cumberland 14-8

170

SOUTH JERSEY 

MEAN15NEWS & NOTES

LOCALRECORDS

Q&A

1061. John Genti le, Paulsboro 25-2

2. Tyler McBride, Camden Catholic 27-4

3. Patrick D’Arcy, Holy Spirit 31-1

4. Joey Rocks, Egg Harbor Township 25-1

5. John Amato, Timber Creek 9-3

1131. Tom Gattinella, St. Augustine 28-4

2. Sam Morina, Paulsboro 28-5

3. Ronray Harris, Middle Township 16-2

4. Dylan LaPalomento,Washington Twp.

27-3

5. Anthony Racobaldo, Williamstown 28-2

1201. Bil ly Wa rd, Bue na 2 9-3

2. Ricky Carter, Timber Creek 23-8

3. Newt Richardson, Schalick 30-1

4. Evan Zuzulock, West Deptford 26-2

5. Gabe Zamot, Egg Harbor Twp. 21-4

1261. Kevin Devoy, Burlington Township 32-0

2. Juan Rivera, Paulsboro 28-5

3. John VanBrill, Clearview 24-1

4. Robert McNeill, Winslow Township 34-0

5. William Elliott, Cumberland 25-3

1321. Brandon Keller, Timber Creek 28-5

2. Maaziah Bethea, Trenton Central 27-0

3. Joe Lemerise, Cherokee 31-2

4. John Hennelly, Delsea 27-4

5. Connor Bestwick, Woodstown 30-4

1381. Chad Walsh, Camden Catholic 28-4

2. Joe Esposito, St. Augustine 29-3

3. Ed Lenkowski, Clearview 22-0

4. Dil lan Berghof, Buena 27-4

5. Nick Knauer, Paulsboro 25-8

1451. T.J. Miller, Camden Catholic 30-1

2. Cur t De li a, De ls ea 3 0-1

3. Antonio Mancella, Oakcrest 27-1

4. Dom Ruggiero, Timber Creek 20-7

5. Christian Stackhouse, Riverside 33-1

1521. Raamiah Bethea, Trenton Central 27-0

2. Mark Patterson, St. Augustine 31-1

3. Bryce Shade, Timber Creek 26-5

4. George Skibinski, Clearview 24-0

5 . N at e R os s, A bs eg am i 2 7- 4

1601. Phil Bakuckas, Hammonton 32-0

2. Robert Schlitt, Haddonfield 25-1

3. Wayne Stinston, No. Burlington 32-3

4. Connor Donahue, Clearview 24-1

5. Dylan Dobzanski, Delsea 26-4

1701. Steve Nelson, Haddon Township 28-0

2. Robert Shade, Timber Creek 30-3

3. Nick Elmer, Penns Grove 33-0

4 . A le x G on g, A bs eg am i 2 6- 4

5. Ni ck Moor e, Se ne ca 2 9-1

1821. Rory Bonn West Deptford 29-1

NEWTRICHARDSONSchalick

Sophomore

120 pounds

A: I think it’s pretty impor-tant. Summer wrestling is whereyou get better.

Q: Do you go during theseason?

A: I do every once in a while just to make sure I’m keeping upwith my technique and every-thing.

Q: What’s it like being oneof the best wrestlers on theteam but being an underclass-man?

A: Being one of the youngerguys, I still have more years tostay around and help everyoneelse out. And with the upper-classmen being good, it’s a lot offun.

Q: What food do you missmost during the wrestlingseason?

A: I gotta say a good old-fashion Anderson’s cheese steak.

— Patrick Buganski 

different. We’re working a lotharder and it’s been showing inour team record. Our team is alot better this year. We’ve got aguy filling every spot prettymuch.

Q: Where does the improve-ment come from?

A: I believe it comes fromthe guys working hard duringthe summer, definitely workingharder during practice.

Q: Having a young coach likeJustin Martin, who is 25, whatdoes that do for the team?

A: He’s really serious a lot ofthe time, but when we do jokearound sometimes, it’s nicehaving a young coach to jokearound with a little bit.

Q: How does practice changethe week of districts?

A: It doesn’t change thatmuch because we work just ashard during the year as we dothis week for districts.

Steffen Rodriguez, Vineland 22-4

James Bennett, St. Augustine 24-8

G ar re tt C ra ig , D el se a 1 2- 7

Dylan Wargo, Schal ick 8-7

182

Marcus Nelson, Vineland 13-4

Marshall Brooks, Delsea 12-4

Cory Pietrzyk, St. Augustine 20-12

195

Bryan Dobzanski, Delsea 28-1

Taiwahn Cosby, Vineland 24-4

S ea n R ed de n, D el se a 2 3- 6

N ic k D av is, M il lv il le 1 3- 5

220

Nick Pustizzi, Schal ick 29-2

N oah Re pko, B ue na 25- 5

Eugene Maisonave, Vineland 19-9

O bie K ali, Mill vill e 18- 8

HWT

Tre Porch, Delsea 26-5

Jacob Paul, Cumberland 13-9

*Wrestlers must have at least a .500 recordand a minimum of 16 bouts.All the records and rankings are based on in-formation through Wednesday.

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MattDellinger

1. Rory Bonner, West Deptford 29-1

2. David Williams, Hammonton 30-3

3. Thomas Forline, Moorestown 27-4

4. Anthony Devito, Pennsville 24-5

5. John Bernard, Oakcrest 24-4

1951. Carson Stack, Haddonfield 30-0

2. Bryan Dobzanski, Delsea 28-1

3. Padric Lynch, Haddon Heights 31-3

4 . C hr is L ai l, K in gs wa y 2 7- 2

5. Wil liam Cioff i, P itman 27-3

2201. Mauro Correnti, Holy Cross 31-3

2 . R oy L uc as, S t. J os ep h 2 7- 1

3. Nick Pustizzi, Schal ick 29-2

4. Ryan Thompson, Haddon Heights 32-2

5. Grant Corretjer, Bordentown 28-2

HWT1. Cody Melton, Northern Burlington 26-2

2. Tom Rementer, Clayton 30-0

3. Alex Thompson, Haddon Heights 34-1

4. Sam Ekwonike, Cinnaminson 9-0

5. Curtis Nealer, Pitman 26-4

*Records through Wednesday.