Clagon Ready To Battle For State title

When the state wrestling finals in Atlantic City conclude on Sunday, a decent amount of hardware will be coming back to the Toms River schools. 

If Toms River South sophomore Bryant Clagon has anything to say about it, that will include a state title at 130. After winning the Region VI title last weekend at the Poland Spring Arena in Toms River, Clagon worked his way through two tough matches to the finals.

His morning started with a match against Julian Quintero of  North Bergen High School. Clagon had his most comfortable match of the day against the Region IV third-place finisher and still only won by an 8-5 decision. 

That set up a match with the top seeded Charlie Huff  of Washington Township. When the two squared off, Huff's record was 32-1, while Clagon was 35-0. Clagon was a 2-1 overtime victor.

With the win Clagon will face Anthony Perrotti of West Essex. The senior won the Region IV title and has a 37-0 record going into the final bout. The three matches he has wrestled so far ended with a tech fall and two pins. 

Clagon's Toms River South teammate,Kevin Corrigan, was not as successful at 112 despite also having won a Region VI title.

After winning his opening round match Saturday night, Corrigan lost his only match when John Vanbrill of Clearview ended his season with a 10-8 decision.

Wrestling at 152, Kyle Kenny won both his matches on Friday night but was unable to beat fellow Shore Conference competitor Vincent Favia of Christian Brothers Academy on Saturday. After taking a 6-4 loss, Kenny's day came to an end with a 7-5 loss to Johnny Sebastian of Bergen Catholic.

The final member of the South delegation was senior Evan Tarver at 215.   Tarver had also won both his matches on Friday night, but his luck started to change with a 7-0 loss to Michael Zeuli of Cherokee. After being dropped into the consolations, Tarver's career came to an end with an 8-3 loss to Dan Garwood of Clearview.

Representing the Toms River East squad was sophomore Richard Lewis at 119. Lewis won his only match of the night on Friday, but when he took on Billy Ward of Buena on Saturday morning, a win was not in the cards. 

Lewis lost 4-1 to the Region VIII champion but was able to pull himself together for a few more rounds. In his first match in the lower bracket, Lewis edged Justion Colon of Belleville, 5-3. 

That gave him a medal, but when he lost 5-4 to William Hagany of High Point, it became clear that the best he could do is seventh place.

 In the seventh-place bout,  Lewis will face Mike Pongracz from Delaware Valley. Pongracz was the Region V champion and had come to Atlantic City with a 36-1 record to his name.

Rounding out the local contingent on Saturday was Monsignor Donovan's own Region 6 Champion Anthony D'Anton. The senior had won his opening round match on Friday night, but was unable to beat Cody Barbiche of Delaware Valley in the quarterfinals. 

In that match the senior lost 4-3, putting him up against Carl Buttitta of JFK Iselinin the consolation brackets. D'Anton saw his season end with an 11-7 loss to his foe.

Be sure to check back with Patch all day tomorrow for live coverage from the state finals here in Atlantic City.