Bernstein Takes Third in State Tournament

Four years ago, Taylor Bernstein, a freshman at Montville Township High School, finished his first season wrestling with a 5-5 record.

“Taylor came in as a backup his freshman year,” head coach John Krip. “He wasn’t a great wrestler.”

Four years later, the Mustang senior is leaving Atlantic City as one of the top three wrestlers in the state.

Bernstein beat Dean Sullivan of Delbarton in a 4-3 decision for third place in the 215 weight class at the state wrestling tournament at Boardwalk Hall on Sunday.

“My goal was to place in the top eight, so coming out here and doing this, I surpassed every single goal I had,” he said. “I mean, there are 328 teams in the state. To place this high, this is great.”

The Montville grappler won after scoring an escape point with 1:13 left in his third place match.

“I was supposed to go out there and take a shot at taking him down,” Bernstien said of his strategy after going up one point. “But he was grabbing my neck so I figured I would just hold on for dear life.”

Sullivan, a fellow Morris County wrestler, complimented Bernstein’s wrestling after the match

“He's pretty tough on top,” he said. “He's really long like me. He can control the majority of your body. For those last two periods, he really wrestled better than I did.”

The win marks the end of a strong year for Bernstein, who had 40 win and 27 pins in the 2010-11 season. He has over 100 wins for his career.

“Going from five wins his freshman year to over a hundred is something,” Krip said. “It couldn’t happen to a nicer kid. He’s a great kid, a great student and a great leader in the ring. He’s the kind of guy you want to go as far as you can.”

Bernstein’s path to third had him facing Andrew Campolatta of Bound Brook in a quarterfinal match, a bout that Bernstien lost 15-0 at the 4:42 mark.

Campolatta went on to take first in the tournament, beating Michael Zeuli of Cherokee with a pin 47 seconds into the match.

“I think if I was on the bottom bracket, Dino or I could have made it to the finals,” Berinstein said of himself and Sullivan. “Dean is a really good wrestler, and if we had different draws, we could have made it.”

Krip agrees with Bernstein’s assessment.

“I believe he is good enough,” he said. “Coming in he had an opportunity to be the top draw in his bracket and it just so happened that he had to come out against the guy breaking all the records.”

Still, Bernstein said he is proud of how far he has come and how supportive his team has been of his efforts.

“Most of the team was sitting in the stands somewhere,” he said. “Everyone has been cheering me on. It feels good to have your home with you when you are three hours away."

Krip said that Bernstein was a leader for his team not only in the tournament but throughout the year.

“Guys like him are the ones you want the younger guys to match in work ethic and attitude,” he said.

Montville sent four wrestlers to the tournament this year, a trend that Krip says he hopes to build on.

“We’ve got a lot of younger kids, including [Parker] Meytrott and [Nick] Lizza,” he said. “A lot of juniors and sophomore coming up. We are going to hit the team stuff. I find that the individual stuff is good but if you work on building a team, the individual stuff will come.”

Bernstein said that he hopes his teammates will look to him as an example moving forward.

“I don’t care if someone thinks I’m the best wrestler, the worst wrestler or whatever,” he said. “I want them to know that the reason I got here is because I worked hard. If anyone works hard, they can get where I’m at now.”

Bernstein finished first in his weight class in the Region 1 tournament and won a Morris County title earlier in the 2010-11 season.