'Pack Wrestlers Fire on All Cylinders to Take Down Morristown

Freshmen Marco Gaita (126) and Matt Liberato (132) and junior second-year wrestler Alex Kaltenhauser (285) led Coach Ken Rossi’s WMC Wolfpack to a convincing 44-18 victory over the Morristown Colonials Tuesday night.

The Pack was dominant on the mat, winning 10 of 12 bouts, while losing two weight classes by forfeit.

The freshman one-two punch of Gaita and Liberato set the tone for the match by defeating two of Morristown’s top wrestlers in the first bouts of the Wolfpack home opener.

In a thrilling battle, Gaita topped Motown junior Dylan Allison – who is 31-6 in his career -- by 5-4. Gaita, now 3-1, has defeated two highly-touted upperclassmen on the season.

Liberato shut out Morristown senior Derek Campbell 4-0. He had 20 wins last year.

Morristown has a lot of experience in the upper weights, but Kaltenhauser defeated senior Jebin Alex 5-2 for his first-ever win on the mat. The hometown crowd roared as big Kalt’s performance virtually locked up the match for the Pack.

After Liberato’s big win, WMC took three of the next four bouts: Mike Oros (138) pinned Mark Capella, David Migliaccio topped Davin Tranfield 8-4 at 152, and Caleb Isemann majored Ismael Alvarez 13-2 at 160.

After Wolfpack forfeits at 170 and 182, senior Kevin Sears pinned Stephon Simon at 195, then Shane Metzler majored Sebastian Cornejo at 106.

Kade Stecker-Loughney won an exciting bout over Morristown junior Jake Tappen, who had 22 wins last season. Coming from behind, Stecker-Loughney pinned Tappen with eight seconds to go.

The final bout saw WMC’s active wins leader Dylan Luciano pin fellow senior Trischan Findley in the second.

Luciano, Migliaccio, Sears and Metzler remain undefeated in the early going.

Kaltenhauser appears ready to take the league by storm this year. Last season was his first-ever wrestling, and he predictably went winless on the mat. But he worked with Coaches Mike Windt and Mike Sickles in the off season, as well as with Region 1 champion Jesse Windt. At the Morris Knolls Tournament, Kalt battled the top-seeded wrestler into triple overtime.

Coming up
The Wolfpack schedule includes the John Goles Tournament Saturday 12/27 at Warren Hills, then Voorhees 12/30, Phillipsburg on 1/2, and the Mt. Olive Quad 1/3/15 against Cedar Grove, Somerville and Mt. Olive.