ERMA — The Caper Tiger wrestling team opened its dual meet season with a resounding win over visiting Mainland Regional. The Mustangs turned right around and handed Buena Regional a similar loss and a few days later topped Pennsville in a close match.
The three teams met in a double dual meet Dec. 19 at Lower Cape May Regional High School.
“The first dual meet of the year is always rough,” LCMR head coach Billy Damiana said. “We’re working out a lot of the kinks from the preseason. I have a lot of freshmen in the lineup today; a lot of young guys trying to get their feet wet, competing for spots. We’re trying to get them as much varsity time as we can.
“Overall,” he added, “I thought we looked pretty decent today.”
“I was very happy with Shane Morell and I was very happy with Ashton Ray, two freshmen that are battling for one spot. We bumped one up. They both came away with pins,” Damiana said. “Having them in the lineup getting used to this, as we know as competitors, when they get that first go at it, we call it the adrenaline rush. And then the adrenaline drop. Getting them used to being in front of home fans and competing in front of everybody was a great deal.”
The Caper Tiger coach and his team would like to repeat last season’s success.
“I think everyone’s goal is getting back to the South Jersey Group II final and see what we can do. It is going to be a work in progress,” Damiana said. “Last year we didn’t start off great. We had a couple bad dual meets early in the year and didn’t look particularly well. We didn’t wrestle great at the Egg Harbor Township Christmas tournament or the Gateway Tournament, even though we won it.
“I feel that this team is more talented than last year, but last year was really senior-heavy and really tough. We’re going to have to grow with our toughness,” Damiana said.
The Caper Tigers beat West Deptford 31-22 to win the South Jersey Group II sectional title in the 2023-24 season.
LCMR 65, MRHS 15
Landon Shivers started things off for LCMR with a pin in 1 minute, 46 seconds of Mustang Kamarion Spencer-Jones in the 106-pound weight class.
The teams traded forfeits, giving Mustang Xander White and Tiger Cade Heacock wins in the 113- and 120-pound classes, respectively.
LCMR’s Conor Barikian pinned Justin Mazur in 1:53 at 126 pounds and Tiger Billy Whitney won by forfeit at 132 pounds.
The Tigers were up 30-6 after the count, but Mustang James Morley picked up a 12-5 decision over Dominick Marrero at 144 pounds to pick up three more points for Mainland.
LCMR then went on a tear, winning the next six matches, five by pin.
Daniel Byrne won by technical fall, 21-5, over Dylan Granzow at 150 pounds.
Gabe Tosto at 157 pounds pinned Ryder Slaughter-Brodton in 2:45 and, at 165, Shane Morrell pinned Miguel Melon in 2:57.
Ashton Ray won by pin in 2:28 at 175 pounds over Joventchy Exanthus.
The two quickest pins of the afternoon were by David Douglas over James Barrett at 190 in 49 seconds and by John Hearon over Justin Castillo at 215 pounds in 42 seconds.
After a back-and-forth match with Tiger Caden Britton, 285-pounder Oswaldo Mendoza pinned his opponent at the 3:12 mark, getting to the final score of 65-15.
MRHS 61, Buena 18
Mainland’s Eric Garcia started things off with a 20-5 technical fall over Buena’s Gianna Edwards.
White pinned Buena’s Aubrey Raum in 1:08 and teammate Makiyah Harris won by forfeit in the 113- and 120-pound classes.
Mazur won his 126-pound match by pin in 1:54 before Buena’s Thomas Hann put his team on the board with a forfeit.
With Mainland leading 23-6, Mazur added six points for his team with a 17-2 technical fall over Buena’s Zach Cohen.
Morley got his second win of the afternoon with the fastest pin of the day, defeating Buena’s Michael Petit in 11 seconds.
Granzow won by pin in 3:11 over Gionni Sharkey at 150 pounds.
Buena’s Lucas Gellura pinned Mainland’s Slaughter-Brodton in 43 seconds, and then Mustang Miguel Melo added a pin of his own in 1:21 over Aden Vai. Gellura won at 157 pounds and Melo at 165.
Exanthus, at 175 pounds, and Barrett, at 190, both won by forfeit.
Buena’s Brian Passamante pinned Mainland’s Castillo in 59 seconds at 215 pins.
Mendoza wrapped up the match for Mainland with a 6-5 decision over Buena’s David Cordero at 285 pounds.
MRHS 43,
Pennsville 36
On Dec. 23 back at Mainland, Pennsville controlled most of the lower weight classes but the Mustangs dominated the upper weights to beat the visitors 43-36.
Pennsville won five of the early bouts from 106 to 144 pounds.
John Sasso and Vincent Ciccantelli won by forfeit at 106 and 132 pounds and Brett Land (10 seconds) and Earl Wynn (1:48) won by pins at 113 and 120 pounds.
Justin Mazur’s match went deep into the third period before he won by pin at 4:52 at 126 pounds over Pennsville’s Mehki Dix.
Mustang teammate Chris Mazur beat Buena’s Gabe Supernavage by major decision 16-4 at 138 points.
Buena’s Travis Hagan pinned Morley in 2:42 at 144 pounds for a 30-10 lead over Mainland.
After that, the Mustangs reeled off six straight wins.
Carson Endicott (150 pounds), Slaughter-Brodton (157) and Melo (165) won by forfeit.
Mainland’s Brock Martin won by pin over Cristian Boyle at the 2:34 mark at 175 pounds and fellow Mustang Barrett, at 190, pinned Buena’s Joseph Halstead in 1:40.
Gary Williams added a 4-3 decision for Mainland over 215-pounder Connor Ayers for the 43-30 lead before Pennsville’s Jacob Hand won by pin in 2:18 over Mendoza in the 285-pound class.
Mustang head coach Clayton Smith said he has a pretty balanced lineup this season with “a handful” of upperclassmen and a bunch of brand new faces out for wrestling, but expects his team to be competitive.
“Consequently, of all my returners, we are not returning any post-season wrestlers. We did not get one wrestler out of the districts last year. For us, it’s a relatively young team,” he said.
Smith will be looking to senior leaders Chris Mazur and James Barrett and a newcomer to Mainland wrestling, James Morley, who came over from Holy Spirit.
“Those are the ones who really stick out,” he said.
“This is our first dual,” Smith said of the match against the Caper Tigers. “We had the tournament at Schalick. Duals and tournaments are two different things. You can use strategy in a dual meet. You can bump a kid up a weight, you can hold a kid back, but it didn’t work out for us today (against LCMR).
“What we needed to do was take a handful of our first-year wrestlers and guys who never touched the mat at the varsity level yet, we needed to go through the process. Of all the things, it just happened to be Lower Cape May,” Smith said.
“I’m looking forward to a very competitive year,” he added, while acknowledging getting his younger wrestlers more experience will be a factor this season. “We have to figure it out. Today was the first time some of them touched a wrestling mat as far as a live match. Some of those kids will grow and develop quickly, some of them will be a work in progress.
“We’re looking for a little of both,” Smith said.
STORY and PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
