Chatham Wrestlers Go Pin Crazy At Season Ending Tournament

The Chatham Wrestling Club is broken down into clinic, junior varsity, varsity and the high school. Members of the Chatham Wrestling Club compete in a number of leagues including the North Jersey Youth Wrestling League. On Sunday, several members of the club competed in the season-ending tournament of this league at Jefferson High School.

At the varsity level, Eric Davis and Alex Wilson placed fourth out of 23 teams and Michael Kellstrom finished the day in fifth place. Eric Davis entered this tournament with the second seed based on his dual meet record of 9-1 with 9 pins.

Unfortunately, the week before this tournament, Eric had an accident which required several sutures above his right eye. In order to compete, Eric was required to wear a cumbersome mask which inhibited his ability to wrestle resulting in a disappointing first-round loss. Eric bounced back to pin his next three opponents (two in the first period and one in the third) before losing his final match to take fourth place.

Alex Wilson lost his first match but bounced back to win his next two. In his final match, Alex was losing 7-5 in the third period. With 15 seconds left on the clock, Alex scored a two point reversal to tie the score and send the match into overtime. Unfortunately, with seconds left, his opponent earned one point on an escape and the win. Alex finished the day in fourth place.

Michael Kellstrom wrestled well in all three of his matches and finished the day in fifth place.

Although he did not place in the top eight, PJ Joel wrestled very well on behalf of Chatham. PJ entered the tournament with the fifth seed based on his dual meet record of 8-3 with five pins. PJ lost his first match, but won the next two before losing his final match.

On the day before, Saturday, eight members of the club participated in the JV portion of the tournament, resulting in six champions and 12 pins. Chatham's six first-place winners are John Rohe (three pins), Michael Rohe (one incredable overtime pin), Drew Mitzak (one pin), Aedan Joel (two pins), Anthony Scerbo (two pins), and Luke Wall (one pin). Brendan Pizzi took second place (one pin), Connor Cortese took third place (one pin) and Jared Cohn finished the day in fourth.

Earlier that day, 10 members of the club competed in the novice portion of the tournament. Brian Boler (one pin) took second place while Jake Silhan, Matthew Engel, Charlie DeCesar, Teddy Joel, Lucas Clymer, Colin Boler, Owen Mcclintock, Gavin McCarthy and Kyle Beebe all took third place. Chatham wrestlers finished the weekend with a tremendous number of wins, which included 16 pins.