Cranford To Send Four Wrestlers To Atlantic City

The Final Count: Cranford grapplers produced more great results at the Region 3 Tournament last weekend with Kyle Markovitch taking a third, Joe Giaccio  a second, Matt DiGiovanni and JP Christiano both winning titles.

The Heroes: Matt DiGiovanni had already clinched a spot in the state tournament taking place in Atlantic City, but he also wanted to prove to himself and fans that his district victory over Union's Dan Ries was not a fluke.

DiGiovanni did just that with his 8-7 victory. In a back and forth match DiGiovanni let Ries up to go down 5-4. With about one minute left Ries got behind DiGiovanni but DiGiovanni hit a standing peterson  to put Ries to his back for a 4 point move. Down 8-5 Ries reversed DiGiovanni to make it close but it was not enough.

"We all have worked so hard for the team, it feels great that four of us will be going to the state championships," DiGiovanni said. "I'm looking forward to hopefully winning some matches down there." Matt's semi-final win was also his 100th career win."

Matt gets tougher as the match goes on and his opponents wear down," Darren Torsone said."Over the last couple of weeks he has been getting better and better."

JP Christiano knew his final against Pat Eichner was not going to be easy. Eichner had defeated Christiano in the dual meet but JP reversed that in the county final with a pin. In a match that he controlled from the start Christiano defeated Eichner 3-0 for his first region championship.

"Christiano has been getting tougher," Torsone said. "He has become more confident and more aggressive which only makes him tougher to beat."

The Quote: "I'm so proud of all four boys," Torsone said. "Markovitch only gave up one point in the whole tournament but unfortunately that was in his 1-0 semi final loss. He did not let that stop him from wrestling back to third place. Giaccio came into his match undefeated but got behind early and came up a little short in his bout with Heilman," he added. "Even with the loss we expect Joe to do something down in Atlantic City."

What's Next: All four wrestlers, accompanied by staff, fans and family, will head down to Convention Hall in Atlantic City Friday night to begin the state tournament. Wrestling will continue Saturday and Sunday, with 14 state champions being crowned Sunday evening.