While the wrestling team didn't advance anyone to the state finals, Coach Mike Russo still didn't have to search far to find the positives this season.
Sean LeBlanc earned his way into the Region 7 quarterfinal round, held this past weekend at Robbinsville High School.
Marcus Lawrence and Josh Parkhurst also advanced to the Region 7 Tournament, but they were both eliminated in a preliminary round on Feb. 23.
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"The good thing is that our three qualifiers and Joey DeChristofaro (who just missed making Region 7) are all back next year," said Russo. "On top of that, we have a real solid core of wrestlers who won 15-plus matches coming back as well, including Kevin Medina, Johnny Cox, Chris Boyle, Nick Mitchell and Aaron Hernandez.
"We should be really good next year, but I really want to see a lot of these guys take it to another level. Winning 15-20 matches in the regular season is great. However, we want kids wrestling deep into the post-season. We have the potential for this to happen, but the kids really need to wrestle a lot in the off-season. That is truly the difference between the good wrestlers and the great wrestlers."
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LeBlanc was up against the great wrestlers this past weekend. He earned his way there by placing in District 25 and winning his Region 7 qualifying match on Feb. 23, when he defeated Burlington City's Joey Baer, 7-2.
In the quarterfinals on Feb. 25, LeBlanc was defeated by Hamilton's Jarod Staub, 6-0. In two previous meetings, each wrestler had a win against the other.
"I knew Staub would be upset after what happened in districts," Russo said. "Staub was leading 14-2 when Sean pinned him."
The loss put LeBlanc into the wrestlebacks, still with a chance of winning three matches and advancing into the state finals.
"Even after the loss on Friday, I thought Sean could make a run at third," Russo said.
Staub was eliminated by Lenape's Austin Wright, 3-0.
"I thought that was a winnable match," Russo said. "Sean knows all the moves. He just needs to get more aggressive. Sean is a nice kid -- which is great -- but on the mat he needs to be a more in-your-face kind of guy.
"Sean had a great season. He had 30 wins and 18 pins. To get to regions and win a match is also good," Russo added.
In addition to the 30 wins by LeBlanc, Lawrence won 28 and Parkhurst won 18.
"We had three underclassmen make it to regions," noted Russo. "We also have a lot of kids that won matches that will be back. That's a definite positive."
