Seven Mountaineers to Join Betancor in Region IV Quarterfinals

West Orange will be a pretty busy host at the Region IV Tournament quarterfinals Friday night.

The Mountaineers will have eight wrestlers in action, hoping to place at least third in the tournament that will earn them a ticket for the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association wrestling finals next weekend at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.

 Fried, a District 13 runner-up at 130 pounds, became the first Mountaineer to win 30 bouts this year. He scored s 10-2 major decision victory over Livingston's Mitchell McDonald. Fried is 30- 7 on the season. 

"I was really happy to see Des reach his 30th," West Orange coach Steve Zichella said. "Not to many wrestlers get to that milestone. It's great to have a kid get there."

Fried, senior 125-pounder Dawitt Rutty, senior 145-pounder Zach White, junior 152-pounder Jimmy Myers, senior 160-pounder Matt Dunovant and senior 171-pounder Pascal Louis will join senior teammate and defending 285-pound champ Emo Betancort in the quarterfinal round.

Wrestling gets underway Friday night at 6 p.m. The tournament resumes with semifinals at 9 a.m. Saturday and runs through the day.

Betancor, Fried and Louis are three of the returning Mountaineers who qualified for the quarterfinals from last year.

Louis, who wrestled at 189 pounds last year, beat Belleville's Mike Laboy 8-3 Tuesday night. Louis will attempt to be the second Mountaineer to hit the 30-win mark. He's 29-9 for the season.

White (26-8) beat Newark Academy senior Joseph Gerish 8-4. Gerish finished the season 26-7.

"Zach won in a very good match; that is one tough kid Zach beat," Zichella said.
Rutty (27-8) pinned Pete Hilburn of St. Peter Prep in 3:23.

The Mountaineer surprises came from Myers and Dunovant. Myers (12-9) won by technical fall over Passaic Tech's Eric Payne. Dunovant beat Belleville's Mark Corino 5-0.