Hopatcong Youth Wrestlers Finishing Season With Style

The Hopatcong Jr. Chiefs youth wrestling program finished its season in style, with 10 boys from grades six through eight reaching the 2011 New Jersey Kids State Wrestling FInals in Moorestown.

The tournament also marked the last time Joey Ioffredo, Joey Aumann, Shea Bongiovani and D.J. Barrett would wear Jr. Chiefs uniforms, as they'll compete for the high school squad next year.

Here's a breakdown of the weekend's results for Hopatcong:

Ioffredo won his first match against Eric Feldhake of Haddonfieldm 8-4. Ioffredo lost his second match to Garrett O’Shea of BBYO, 11-7, and his day finished in another tough los to Nicholas Maher of PAWS, 3-2.

Aumann lost his first match against Tyler Underwood from Rhino by pin in the final period. Aumann lost his second match to Kyle Flynn of PLRYO, 12-0.

Barrett made it all the way to the semifinals after pinning Dylan Pescatore of New Egypt and beating Rodney DiPrenda of Cedar Grove, 14-0. He suffered his first lost to eventual silver medalist Nick DePalmer of Wayne, 5-1. In the consolation, round Barrett lost a tough match to Abraham Saavedra of Bound Brook. In his final match for fifth place, he dropped Brandon Gallagher of Pascack Hills, 7-5, in overtime to capture fifth place in the 152-pound class.

On Sunday, the best 11-12 year old boys took the mat. Hoping to get medals were Brandon Olmstead, Jake Wilkerson and Brayan Rodriguez.

Olmstead won his first match against Daniel Percelay of the Scorpions, 1-0. He lost his second match to Anthony Capece of Apex, 2-1. Brandon won his first two matches in the consolation round, beating Nicholas Schutzenhofer of BYAA, 3-2, and Thomas DiGiovanni of Cranford, 7-1. In the semi finals, Olmstead suffered a wrist injury midway through the match and lost, 6-0, to bronze medalist Philip Ruiz of Apex. In the finals for fifth place, it was a rematch with Capece. Capece proved a little too strong and Olmstead lost, 7-4, to finish sixth in the 65-pound class.

Wilkerson drew a tough opponent in his first match against the eventual fourth-placer Joey Stambouly of Wayne. Wilkerson lost, 6-4. He lost his second match to Frank Manning of Emerson, 5-0.

Rodriguez won his first match against Aidan Monteverdi of Hanover, 8-5. He lost his second match to fourth-placer Daniel Kilroy from Wayne by pin. In the consolation round, Rodriguez won his next two matches against Joshua DeDufour from Hopewell Valley, 6-0,and Al Falco of Sparta, 5-0. Rodriguez lost in the semifinals to Tyler Mullen of Olympic, 7-0, and in the finals for fifth place he lost to Dean Drugac of Morris Knolls, 8-0, to capture sixth place in the 128-pound class.

The finals conclude this weekend with the younger boys attempting to capture medals at Union High School where the best first- through fifth-grade boys in the state will complete over two days.

Mike Mastroeni, Anthony Mastroeni, Anthony Rodriguez and Max Shuman will compete for Hopatcong.

Editor's note: Special thanks for Elvis Rodriguez for the information.