OCEAN CITY The Red Raiders wrestling team swept its home quad meet over the weekend, going 3-0 against Williamstown, Eastern, and Gateway as the meets got progressively harder.
“It was great,” head coach Dan Calhoun said. “The kids trained hard this week and to get three wins, with the way it ended, was great. It was good for the kids. They loved it, we had a really good crowd today, we had a lot of alumni come back. To get three wins – it’s a good day.”
“This is huge for us,” junior captain Nick Layton said. “It’s the start to a great season.”
First the Raiders knocked off Williamstown 37-28.
The Raiders led 30-11 before the Braves trimmed the lead down the stretch.
With both teams winning seven bouts the difference was bonus points: Jake Melini (113 pounds), Talon Fischer (150), Jace Watson (157), and Layton (175) all scored pins while Aiden Leypoldt (132) and Tommy Grimley (144) won by technical fall.
Next up were the Eastern Vikings, with whom the Raiders were neck-and-neck before Grimley, Watson, and Fischer scored three straight pins for a comfortable 29-10 Ocean City lead. Melini, Layton, and Clifford Dirkes (285) also pinned in their bouts.
Ocean City took the match 41-34.
The Raiders’ final meet of the day featured a little more drama.
Against perennial powerhouse Gateway, sophomore David Schultz shook off a pair of tough losses earlier in the day and came through in the clutch.
The Gators jumped out to an 11-0 lead.
Leypoldt, Grimley, and Watson pinned to keep the Raiders close but Gateway led 20-18 halfway through.
Clarence Smith (165) won a crucial decision to nudge the Raiders ahead 21-20 and Layton grabbed his third pin of the day for a 7-point lead with five bouts to go.
“David did an excellent job,” Calhoun said. “He was down, battled through, and boom – ended up with the fall, and that’s huge. It’s a huge swing match; you go from them winning that match giving three or maybe four, to us getting six. It was great.”
Trailing late in the second period, Schultz scored a massive pin that saw the home gym erupt with cheers.
Sean Hoag’s pin at 106 sealed the 39-36 win and the perfect 3-0 day for Ocean City.
“He went out and cradled the kid,” Calhoun said of Hoag. “It’s exciting. He’s a freshman and to get that for the home crowd was really cool.”
“Our team has just been grinding every single day,” Layton said. “We go six days a week and we just grind, so it’s well deserved.”
The day could not have gone much better for the Raiders, particularly for Layton, who came back from injury to record three pins.
“This is his first quad back,” Calhoun said. “To go out and have three falls, that’s great.”
“Just getting back to my normal self has been my goal,” Layton said. “Being out there today was big.”
They took care of business at home, resoundingly.
“These kids are told all the time, this is our house,” Calhoun said. “You go out and wrestle like you own it. It’s about getting after it, staying focused, and working hard. They did that this week and I’m glad it showed. They backed it up today.”
They rose to the occasion against an excellent opponent, a sign that they’re confident and buying in.
“Today we told them, first match, ‘This is a winnable match, we can do this,’ boom. Second match, ‘This is a winnable match,’ they win it. Third one, ‘This is going to be the toughest of the whole day, but it’s winnable if everyone does their job.’ It’s good to see when you say that and the kids believe in it, and then it happens,” Calhoun said.
The success bodes well as the Raiders head into the dual portion of their season.
“We’re very young,” Calhoun said. “We practice a lot, we’ve had two tournaments, and we started our dual season last week. We opened up with the number two team in the state with St. Joe Montvale and then St. Augustine – I don’t know where they’re ranked but they’re always phenomenal. So they were in ‘wake-up’ matches right off the bat. Now to come and wrestle teams that are a little closer to us with athletes, it was a great day for us.”
“It’s a great group that we have,” Layton said. “I love the team. I think we’re very capable of making the playoffs.”
The Red Raiders, 3-2, head to Haddonfield Saturday for a quad meet that begins at 9 a.m.
Photo by DAVID NAHAN, story by KYLE McCRANE/Sentinel Sports
