Seeds, Matchups for Region 8 Wrestling Tournament Released

The field has been trimmed and five Absegami High School wrestlers will make the trip to Egg Harbor Township for the Region 8 tournament, beginning Wednesday night, Feb. 22.

The top three finishers in each weight class advanced to the regional tournament out of each district, including District 32 champions Mike Jiampetti (126), John Willette (132) and Alex Gong (170).

Seniors Nate Ross (152) and Mike Ottaviano (285) finished in second place in their respective weight classes, and will compete in the opening round of the regional tournament Wednesday night.

For the second week in a row, Gong (30-4) was seeded first at 170. He is scheduled to open the tournament against Clearview’s Kyle McMahon, the eighth seed. Timber Creek’s Robert Shade enters the region with the No. 2, sporting a slightly better record than Gong at 31-3. Vineland’s Steffen Rodriguez (25-4) is the No. 3 seed.

Jiampetti enters the tournament as the No. 2 seed at 126. He will face either Brandon Bower, of Egg Harbor Township, or Timber Creek’s Brandon Virgilio. The top seed at 126 is John VanBrill, a Clearview grappler who sports a 27-1 record for the season.

Willette is No. 4 at 132. He will face either Eric Hanusewicz, of Cedar Creek, or Vineland’s Jonathon Rodriguez. Timber Creek’s Brandon Keller is the top seed at 132, followed by No. 2 John Hennelly, of Delsea, and No. 3 Matt Salera, of Washington Township.

At 152, Ross opens the tournament against West Deptford’s Daniel Gibson on Wednesday night. The winner faces No. 6 seed George Skibinksi, of Clearview. St. Augustine’s Mark Patterson is the top seed, while Bryce Shade, of Timber Creek, is No. 2.

At 285, Ottaviano opens up Wednesday night against Josh Johnson, of Ocean City, with the winner to face No. 4 Dom LaFragola. The top seeded heavyweight is undefeated Tom Rementer, of Clayton, who is 33-0 this year.

The top three finishers in the region advanced to next weekend’s state championships in Atlantic City.

Seeds and matchups in all weight classes, as released Monday night, are below:

106 pounds
Mike Van Horn (21-10) Washington Township, vs. (8) Patrick Higgins (28-7), Woodstown, winner to meet (1) John Gentile (28-2), Paulsboro; Steven Bergamo (22-12), St. Augustine, vs. (5) Jodeci Robinson (24-6), Clayton; Ross Hicks (18-7), Williamstown, vs. (4) Joseph Rocks (27-2), (Egg Harbor Township); (6) Tom Carney (18-13), Delsea, vs. (3) Patrick D’Arcy (32-1), Holy Spirit; (7) Joshua Pineda (23-7), Vineland, vs. Alex Eastlack (24-6), Gateway, winner to meet (2) John Amato (13-3), Timber Creek.

113 pounds
(8) John Gallo (31-4), Schalick, vs. (1) Tom Gattinella (31-4), St. Augustine; (5) Zach Valcarce (26-8), Lower Cape May, vs. Joey DiMartino (22-11), Timber Creek; Matt Sparks (21-9), Gateway, vs. (4) Anthony Racobaldo (30-3), Williamstown; Jacob Samuels (19-16), Pennsville, vs. (6) Tyler Kaminski (28-6), West Deptford, winner to meet (3) Dylan LaPalomento (30-3), Washington Township; Zachary Nealis (23-7), Vineland, vs. (7) Ronray Harris (18-3), Middle Township, winner to meet (2) Sam Morina (31-5), Paulsboro.

120 pounds
Alex Moncher (18-9), Clearview, vs. (8) Garrett Paolone (27-7), Holy Spirit, winner to meet (1) Ricky Carter, Timber Creek; (5) Edmond Ongoro (19-7), Lindenwold, vs. Darrian Brooks (24-12), Penns Grove, winner to meet (4) Evan Zuzulock (29-2), West Deptford; John Rizzo (11-12), Vineland, vs. (6) Gabe Zamot (23-5), Egg Harbor Township, vs. (3) Newt Richardson (33-1), Schalick; (7) Brian Ceaser (22-6) vs. Cory Jacobs (28-5), Clayton, winner to meet (2) Billy Ward (32-3), Buena.

126 pounds
John Pierson (14-14), Delsea, vs. (5) Edward Donahue (23-13), St. Augustine, winner to meet (1) John VanBrill (27-1), Clearview; (5) John Ecret (22-9), Pennsville, vs. Mike Jacobs (21-8), Hammonton; Steven Alt (24-10), West Deptford, vs. (4) Juan Rivera (30-6), Paulsboro; (3) William Elliott (28-3), Cumberland, vs. (6) Robert McNeill (37-0), Winslow Township; (7) Brandon Bower (11-8), Egg Harbor Township vs. Brandon Virgilio (25-7), Timber Creek, winner to meet (2) Mike Jiampetti (27-7), Absegami.

132 pounds
Bill Millward (23-12), Clayton, vs. (8) Jason Cohen (24-5), Egg Harbor Township, winner to meet (1) Brandon Keller (29-5), Timber Creek; (5) Eric Hanusewicz (10-2), Cedar Creek, vs. Jonathon Rodriguez (20-10), Vineland, winner to meet (4) John Willette (21-13), Absegami; Christian Terinoni (25-7), West Deptford, vs. (3) Matt Salera (3-2), Washington Township; Justin Fucetola (17-14), Hammonton, vs. (6) Connor Bestwick (32-5), Woodstown; (7) Cody Croce (24-12), Paulsboro, vs. (2) John Hennelly (30-4), Delsea.

138 pounds
(8) Adrian Feliciano (23-7), Pennsville, vs. (1) Dillan Berghof (30-4), Buena; Dylan Weiss (23-13), Woodstown, vs. (4) Nick Knauer (27-9), Paulsboro, winner to meet (5) Mike Graham (26-6), Williamstown; Shawn Bryant (22-8), Egg Harbor Township, vs. (6) Ryan Wade (7-1), Highland, winner to meet (3) Edward Lenkowski (25-0), Clearview; (7) Isaiah DeGuzman (20-11), Timber Creek, vs. Michael Morris (23-9), Kingsway; Aaron Kolmetsky (25-7), Deptford, vs. (2) Joe Esposito, St. Augustine (31-4).

145 pounds
James Ingersol (15-14), Egg Harbor Township, vs. Niko Savaiinaea (20-12), Paulsboro, winner to meet (1) Antonio Mancella (30-1), Oakcrest; (5) Monty Krough (30-5), Pennsville, vs. Eric Lands (23-11), Mainland; Josh Ferentz (17-12), Clayton, vs. (4) Patrick McCurdy (34-3), Woodstown; (3) Dom Ruggiero (23-7), Timber Creek, vs. (6) Dan Cornew (20-4), Clearview; (7) Kellen Whitney (27-8), Hammonton, vs. Sheldon Morris (15-13), Highland, winner to meet (2) Curt Delia (33-1), Delsea.

152 pounds
Ed Shockley (27-6) Millville vs. (8) Billy Williams (28-8) Woodstown, winner to meet (1) Mark Patterson (34-1) St. Augustine; Anthony Irwin (12-8) Triton vs. (4) Justin Pierotti (28-6) Buena, winner to meet (5) Colton Newsome (18-2) Pennsville; (3) Nate Ross (29-5) Absegami vs. Daniel Gibson (17-16) West Deptford, winner to meet (6) George Skibinski (27-0) Clearview; (7) Stimento Rowe-Akins (31-3) Clayton vs. Jordan Djahi (18-14) Overbrook, winner to meet (2) Bryce Shade (29-5) Timber Creek.

160 pounds
Trevor Mathais (26-9) Penns Grove vs. (8) Zach Rahl (27-8) Schalick, winner to meet (1) Phil Bakcukas (25-0) Hammonton; (5) Mike Silvestro (25-11) Paulsboro vs. Riley Outten (10-19) Washington Township, winner to face (4) Tyler Sentman (29-6) St. Augustine; Jake Pennington (20-11) Gateway vs. Cesar Balmadeca (19-4) Atlantic City vs. (3) Dylan Dobzanski (29-4) Delsea; (7) Christian LaFragola (25-10) Holy Spirit vs. Emmanuel Mitchell (24-12) Winslow, winner to meet (2) Connor Donahue (27-1) Clearview.

170 pounds
(1) Alex Gong (30-4) Absegami vs. (8) Kyle McMahon (20-3) Clearview; (5) Cooper Gallagher (23-6) Ocean City vs. Josh McCouch (27-11) Overbrook, winner to meet Ahmir Walker (19-10) Deptford vs. Nick Elmer (35-1) Penns Grove; Billy Leone (24-8) Kingway vs. (6) Tommy Mitchell (25-5) Lindenwold, winner to meet (3) Steffen Rodriguez (25-4) Vineland; (7) James Bennett (26-9) St. Augustine vs. Mike McKenney (23-5) Gloucester, winner to meet (2) Robert Shade (31-3) Timber Creek.

182 pounds
Marshall Brooks (12-6) Delsea vs. (8) Trevant McCloud (26-4) Lindenwold, winner to meet (1) Chris Lail (31-2) Kingsway; Mark Camma (21-10) Pitman vs. (4) John Benard (26-5) Oakcrest, winner to meet (5) James Mooers (21-6) Middle Townhip; Dustin Baionno (30-6) Woodstown vs. (6) James Hall (27-7) Lower Cape May, winner to meet (3) Rory Bonner (32-1) West Deptford; (7) Michael Robinson (27-3) Clayton vs. Jordan Warren (16-11) Highland, winner to meet (2) David Williams (33-3) Hammonton.

195 pounds
Gabe Sastre (19-11), Clayton, vs. (8) Tiawahn Cosby (26-5), Vineland, winner to meet (1) Bryan Dobzanski (30-1), Delsea; Hunter Joseph (14-15), Clearview, vs. (4) Michael Anderson (24-5), Mainland, winner to meet (5) Kahlil McCollough-Bey (10-1), Williamstown; Matt Kountz (15-14), Timber Creek, vs. (6) Stephen Andrescavage (25-2), Hammonton, winner to meet (3) William Cioffi (30-3), Pitman; (7) Patrick Wexler (26-6), Kingsway, vs. Joe Johnston (22-7), Middle Township, winner to meet (2) Cory Damiana (28-6), Lower Cape May.

220 pounds
Schalor Blackshear (19-7), Timber Creek, vs. (8) Sean Redden (24-6), Delsea, winner to meet (1) Roy Lucas (33-1), St. Joseph; (5) Gerald Owens (26-4), vs. (4) Nick Pustizzi (31-2), Schalick; Cylas Dorety (29-6), Woodstown, vs. (6) Nigel Toussaint (20-8), Egg Harbor Township, winner to meet (3) Brandon Belger (26-5), Middle Township; (7) Noah Repko (27-5), Buena, vs. Neil Kuntz (24-8), Clayton; Christian Ruggeri (10-5), Pitman, vs. (2) Brian Beebe (31-5), Hammonton.

Heavyweight
Samuel Harvey (23-5), Penns Grove, vs. (8) Cody Dooley (20-15), Pennsville, winner to meet (1) Tom Rementer (33-0), Clayton; (5) Josh Johnson (20-6), Ocean City vs. Mike Ottaviano (27-7), Absegami, winner to meet (4) Dom LaFragola (31-3), Holy Spirit; (3) Tre Porch (29-5), Delsea, vs. (6) Martel Harrison (24-8), Highland; (7) Robert Frederico (21-9) vs. Seth Tinsley (21-8), Triton; Allan Westenberger (24-10), Gloucester, vs. Curtis Nealer (29-5), Pitman.