Dean, Montuore Lead Pack to County Public School Bronze

By David Yaskulka

LONG VALLEY, NJ -- 1/30/22

Freshmen Brandon Dean and Mark Montuore took bronze and fourth respectively to lead the 6-12 West Morris Central Wolfpack wrestlers to a shocking third place finish among public schools at the Morris County Tournament in Mount Olive Saturday. Twenty-two schools and 247 wrestlers competed.

Dean and Montuore’s success is extremely rare for WMC rookies.

Coach Chris Marold had to confer with his predecessor Ken Rossi to find a better freshman performance in team history – and neither could. Junior Michael Campanaro placed fifth as a rookie, as did Shane Metzler, John Sickles, Brandon Carcuffe and Nick Matthews. Jeremy Adickes was the best in memory, placing fourth in 2003.

“Mark and Brandon were very impressive this weekend,” summarized Marold.

Michael Ferrante, Campanaro, Malachi Shepard and Henry Frayne also took fourth place honors in grueling brackets. Michael Hare placed fifth, and Dean Muttart 7/8 (there is no seventh place match).

The Wolfpack finished fourth overall. Private school Delbarton once again dominated, with top-ranked wrestlers recruited from Morris and other counties. Delbarton wrestlers were crowned in most brackets, for 303.5 points and its 13th consecutive title.

Mount Olive dominated all public schools with 204 points, and six finalists, including champion Tyeler Hagensen. Hanover Park was next with 125, followed by WMC with 121.

“I was very excited about this tournament because first, I love the county tournament, but second I knew that this team is built for tournaments,” explained Marold. “We have been able to be competitive with some really tough teams this year in dual meets, but with all of our forfeits, it's difficult to win. Our record is not indicative of how tough our guys are.

“I couldn't have been happier with how we wrestled on Friday night and we had almost a perfect round Sunday morning in the quarters. We had a couple of tough breaks in the semis and we were not able to bound back and get the next best things in a lot of our consolation matches. Hare and Dean both wrestled great matches to take 5th and 3rd.”

WMC dominated the quarterfinals, with only Hare and Muttart losing – both to NJ #1 ranked wrestlers. But the Pack lost 11 of the 12 matches to follow – all six semifinal matches, and five of the third place matches, where Dean had the only victory. Hare added two victories to take fifth.

Dean faced one of the toughest brackets in MCT history, with three of NJ’s top-five ranked 132 pounders competing.

Hare tied for seventh in the entire tournament in seed/place differential (i.e., exceeding expectations), and Muttart and Shaun Seabeck were tied for 23rd out of 247.

Dean nailed the tournament’s single fastest pin at 11 seconds.

Seabeck’s Pin and Muttart’s Upset Lead Pack’s Big MCT Day One

Heavyweight Seabeck pinned his ParHills opponent in 3:16 to lead the Pack’s pinfall parade on day one Friday.

WMC ended the day in third, trailing only Mount Olive and Delbarton, the position they’d maintain through the semifinals.

Ferrante, Campanaro, Dean, Shepard, Muttart and Frayne all pinned their way to the quarterfinals. Montuore got there with a major decision.

Muttart, the 11 seed, took out 8-seed senior Michael McGuire from Madison.

Only 21 wrestlers finished the day guaranteed to finish above his seed, including Seabeck and Muttart.

WMC MCT History

There was no Morris County Tournament last season. In 2020, WMC placed third among public schools, with current upperclassmen Shepard (third), Campanaro (fifth) and Ferrante (eighth) all placing. Campanaro in particular had a legendary bracket, in which three wrestlers who placed above him went on to become state finalists, including two champions.

Alumni Colin Loughney and Eli Shepard took silver, Kevin Ramos bronze, Robert Bohr fourth, Matt Borgia and Jorge Montenegro sixth.

In 2019, WMC placed third among public schools, highlighted by silver for Eli Shepard and Justin LeMay, and bronze for John DeVito and Luke Stefanelli.

The last champion for the Wolfpack was current Wesleyan senior Marco Gaita in 2018. He’s now ranked #5 in the nation for Division 3 (RankWrestling) – matching his NJ fifth place medal that year. Prior, former Rutgers starter Shane Metzler won back-to-back titlesin 2016 and 2017, on his way to two of his three NJ state medals.

Frayne, Dean, Campanaro and Hare Secure Union Win

(1/22) The Wolfpack won its sixth match of the year with a 54-18 drubbing of Union High School. Union brought just three experienced wrestlers to the fight, and one had the misfortune of facing Frayne, who ended the bout in just 19 seconds by fall.

The match started with yet another Dean pin and three Union forfeits to give WMC a lead that would not be overcome.

Campanaro and Hare also added first period pinfalls for the Pack victory. WMC received five forfeits, and there were two double forfeits, limiting the action to seven bouts. Since they all ended in first period pins, fans saw the equivalent of about two complete bouts all night.

Ferrante, Dean and the Pack Put a Scare in Pope John XXIII

(1/25) After Montuore put the Wolfpack on the board with a convincing 6-0 shutout victory, Ferrante stunned the Pope John faithful by pinning one of New Jersey’s best, Carson Walsh, in just 28 seconds. Walsh is Pope John’s second highest ranked wrestler at #13 in the state.

Campanaro took care of business with a first period pin against a top-50 wrestler.

Then, with WMC down 16-15 just before halftime, Dean continued to emerge victorious against all wrestlers (non-Tyler Vazquez category), gutting out an 8-6 win over Pope John’s third top-15 wrestler, Justin Holly.

Rizzuto took down another top-100 wrestler 8-7. Shepard won 12-5, and then Muttart delivered the pain with a pinfall to put the Wolfpack up 30-16 with four bouts to go.

But Pope John maxed out after that, and escaped with the 40-30 victory.

For the second time this month, emerging WMC hammer Frayne was taken down by one of the nation’s best, as NJ #3 ranked Jack Stoll pinned to start this match.

WMC only forfeited one match, at 190.

Contributing writer David Yaskulka’s day job is Senior VP, Corporate Social Responsibility at Mid America Pet Food in Mt. Pleasant, TX. He’s also Board Chair of Greater Good Charities, and Board Vice Chair of the Pet Sustainability Coalition. His sons wrestled for the Pack.