3 Hopatcong Wrestlers Snatch District Crowns; Four-Peat For Haines

Late in the third period, senior 125-pounder Dan Haines rested on his downed opponent, whose chest was firmly planted on the mat. Haines maintained his top position, but relaxed a little bit as he looked up to the scoreboard.

As the final seconds ticked away, Haines looked into his home Hopatcong crowd, already on its feet, cheering Haines along, and with one hand put up four fingers, signifying his most recent accomplishment.

With his dominant 9-1 win over Montville’s Rob Glasser at , Haines became a four-time district champion, the first to get the four-peat in Hopatcong history.

“I’m only the fourth one in the district to do it so I was pretty excited after,” Haines said.  “To be home, this being my last match in my senior year, and to get the four-time district championship is pretty exciting.”

Haines is the fourth wrestler to win four district two titles in the District’s history.

“I know its our first four-time District champion,” head coach Eric Fajerman said. “He was looking forward to this this year. Obviously, he has bigger goals, but he was definitely looking forward to this. It was the best he looked all year in that match.”

Haines scored a takedown 24 seconds into the first period and never looked back. He extended his first-period lead to 4-1 with another takedown with 6.4 seconds left, as Glasser fell out of bounds. In the second period, Haines was awarded three points when he almost pinned Glasser.

“I thought I was going to wrestle poorly,” Haines said. “I messed up my hip a little bit coming in, but I got my adrenaline going and I didn’t feel it. I got myself real psyched for this game. I didn’t want to be the guy who lost to the guy he should’ve beat when he was going for the four-time championship.”

Fajerman hopes this will help the program in the future.

“It always means a lot to a program (to watch someone break records),” Fajerman said. “Hopefully some of the younger kids are in the gym and they’re watching because you want them to aspire to be like him. That’s what keeps the program going.”

Before Haines, Hopatcong saw two other wrestlers have great success. In fact, within a 25-minute stretch, three Chiefs were crowned district champion.

The first was senior 112-pounder Giancarlo Cruz with a 4-0 win over Roxbury’s Joey Mazza. With 45 seconds left in the first period, Cruz got control of Mazza’s back for the first two points of the match. A half-minute into the second period, Cruz scored a two-point reversal.

“I’m a senior and I haven’t won districts, I have two second-place medals,” Giancarlo Cruz said. “It was my last chance to get it win and so I knew I had to go out there hard and wrestle my hardest. I had to lay it all on the line to get it.”

Cruz lost in the finals the last two seasons. He also finished fourth in the region tournament, one place away from state eligibility.

“It was a big match for him,” Fajerman said. “When he lost to the kid from Mendham, he was looking at a four-seed in the regions. In this division, that’s not where you want to be. Now, he’s in much better position to get out of the regions.”

While Cruz was having his arm raised as the newly-minted district champion, teammate Miguel Burgos was taking the second mat. Burgos proceeded to defeat Lenape Valley’s Andrew LaBell, 6-1.

“I was pressing to win that match,” Burgos said. “I’ve never wrestled him before so it was something new.  All I had in my mind was to win Districts so I could get my name up in the old gym as a two-time winner.”

LaBell stayed within four points until the third, when he cut into the lead with an escape. With 11 seconds left, Burgos removed all doubt and fear of a comeback with a takedown. In the final seconds, Burgos looked up to the clock and let out a smile—a job well done.

“He’s a two-time district champion,” Fajerman said. “And he has a great chance to get out of regions. So we’ll see what happens.”

Junior Joe Cruz was handed a 7-5 loss by top-seeded Jan Rosenberg in the 103-pound finals. Rosenberg, undefeated this season, held a 3-2 lead after the first period, and had lengthened it to 7-2 just 10 seconds into the third and final period. Cruz continued to battle, but to no avail.

“He should never have taken me down in the beginning,” Joe Cruz said. “I had a cradle there but I didn’t finish it out. He rode me out. That won’t happen again.”

On Tuesday, Cruz will have an opportunity to wrestle into the Region 1 tournament when he heads to Wallkill Valley to wrestle another near district champion.

What will Cruz have on his mind until then?

“Jan,” Cruz said, with a look that could’ve pierced a diamond. “That’s it.”

Joe Cruz hopes to join the other three next weekend in the regional tournament. The top three finishers in each weight class move on to the state tournament.

“Our expectations are to get four region champions,” Fajerman said. “Obviously, we want to get top three. But if they go in hoping to take third, it’s the wrong attitude. You’ve got to go in expecting to win.”

Hopatcong finished fifth overall with 95.5 points. Montville took first with 202 points.