The Columbia wrestling team opened their season with a decisive win, but head coach Harold Garwin was still not impressed with his team's performance, in a 48-30 home win over Summit on Saturday morning.
"We're lucky we won this one. They're not a real strong team and we were down two of our starters," Garwin said. "I don't take much away from this. We're lucky this was our first match. We didn't wrestle well overall."
The Cougars used four pins and three Summit forfeits to come away with the victory.
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At 125, senior co-captain Andrew Adams had the most impressive performance of the day, manhandling and overpowering Summit's Alex Mayorga. Adams powered his opponent to the ground in the opening seconds of the first round and within 32 seconds, he had already picked up the pin.
Jesse Krasner got things started off well for the Cougars at 145 pounds, earning a pin over Sean Padaguano with 48.9 seconds remaining in the first round. He used two early takedowns, and was staked to a 4-1 lead before getting the pin down.
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Chris Auriemma took care of business against Chris Chaves of Summit, earning a third round pin, via a single leg takedown, which was worked into a cradle and pin. In the first round, Auriemma bull rushed his opponent to the ground to take a 2-0 lead. Down by three, Chaves attempted a double leg takedown on Auriemma, but the Cougar 160 pounder resisted the shot, and ended up falling on top of Chaves to go up 6-1 heading into the third.
Khari Jarrett got Columbia's other pin, wrestling at the 112 weight class, a slot up from his usual 103 class. Nonetheless, the junior grappler did not miss a beat, pinning Tyler Bowlin in one minute.
"The kids that are good, wrestled well today," Garwin said of his team. "I told our good kids that they have to give us six [points]. They're going to have to give us six throughout this season."
The turning point in the contest was Brandon Otis's minor decision over Summit's Manny Navas. The squads were tied at 12 heading into the contest, and a key reversal early in the second round, gave Otis a 7-2 lead. Otis allowed an escape and was called for a hand locking foul before winning 7-4. The victory put the Cougars up 15-12, and Summit forfeited the next three matches. That turned a tight game into one that the Cougars were running away with at 33-12 heading into Jarrett's bout.
Alex Lopez was the only other winner for Columbia, pulling out a close 6-4 victory over Summit's Nick Abbot. After a scoreless first round, Abbot countered a cradle attempt by Lopez and turned into takedown points. Lopez escaped, reversed and earned a near fall point, taking a 4-2 lead into the third period. In the down position to start the final period, Lopez scored a reversal to go up 6-2 and was called for two fouls before holding on for the minor decision.
The match was not without its controversy however. At 140 pounds, Columbia's Obinna Nwanonyuri was in complete control of his bout against Andre Zeledon up 6-2 after one round, 8-3 after two and was up 14-6 midway through the third. But he accidentally slammed Zeledon to the ground too hard, hitting his head on the mat. Zeledon could not wrestle anymore and Nwanonyuri was disqualified.
The call was questionable at best, but is left up to the judgment of the official. According to the rules, a wrestler must not slam his opponent to the ground. It is the responsibility of the wrestler to make sure that when he or she lifts his opponent in the air that they not come down in a hard slam.
"Obinna did good and now he has a loss that he didn't deserve to a kid in our district, so that's going to hurt him," Garwin said.
The Cougars wrestle again on Dec. 28 at a junior varsity wrestling tournament and the next day at the Rahway Tournament.
Results
103: Nathaniel Pham (Col) wins: forfeit
112: Khari Jarrett (Col) p. Tyler Bowlin: 1:00
119: John Bayani (Sum) wins: forfeit
125: Andrew Adams (Col) p. Alex Mayorga: :32
130: Alex Lopez (Col) minor dec. Nick Abbot: 6-4
135: Colum Dougherty (Sum) p. Steven Edmund: 5:34
140: Andre Zeledon (Sum) wins: disqualification
145: Jesse Krasner (Col) p. Sean Padaguano: 1:12
152: Zach Tolles (Sum) p. Edvard Larose: 1:52
160: Chris Auriemma (Col) p. Chris Chaves: 4:50
171: A.J. Iarussi (Sum) p. Jordan Oxford: 1:00
189: Brandon Otis (Col) minor dec. Manny Navas: 7-4
215: Yalan Sesay (Col) wins: forfeit
HVY: Cliff McIsaacs (Col) wins: forfeit
