Roselle Park Dads Club
Proudly serving the youth of Roselle Park since 1934
Team finishes as the Team A Champion, fifth overall
Hundreds of miles from home, our Roselle Park High School grapplers finished with six place-winners at the 44th WSAZ Wrestling Invitational in Huntington, West Virginia.
Wrestling in the finals at the same time on adjoining mats, Mayson Harms and Angel Mejia finished as the last men standing in each of their brackets.
Junior Angel Mejia was the first to finish off his opponent, Payton Neely, the fifth-ranked West Virginia High School AA/A wrestler at 138. Mejia shot in for two textbooks takedowns during the opening period to start the second period 4-1. Mejia began from the bottom, quickly escaped, took Neely down again and pinned him at the edge of the circle 38 seconds into the second period.
The attention was then focused on junior Mayson Harms, who was also in control the entire match and defeated Brody Hess, the top-ranked AA/A wrestler in the state at the 132 weight class, by a score of 7-0. He scored a takedown in the first period and started from the bottom for the second period. Harms escaped and then took Hess down again to make it 5-0. At neutral for the third period, Harms sealed the deal with another takedown.
Junior Matthew Griffin (106) is coming back to RP having earned a second place finish. He fell in the finals 15-0 but had an impressive run of victories, including a 13-7 win against the returning W.V. state champ at 106, on his way to the last match in his weight class.
In the fifth place contest at 113, junior Brandon Scott took a scoreless match into the second period. He started on bottom, escaped, and then took down his opponent before flattening him for a pin at 2:13.
Seniors Julian Colon at 145 took seventh place and Sal Randazzo took eighth place at 120.
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The Panthers represented Roselle Park and New Jersey very well in West Virginia, with efforts resulting in the Team A Championship. After day one at the WSAZ tournament on Jan. 28, eight Panthers remained in the mix. Other than Griffin, Harms, and Mejia making it to the quarterfinals, Scott, Randazzo, Nick Torino (126), Colon, and John James Ranieri (170) were alive in the wrestle-backs.
Roselle Park was in fifth place overall after the quarterfinal round on Jan 29. In the quarterfinals, Griffin beat the fourth-ranked West Virginia High School AA/A wrestler in his weight class. Harms bested the third-ranked wrestler in the state and Mejia pinned the second-ranked wrestler to advance into the semifinals.
In the semifinal round, Griffin won 13-7; Harms won 3-2; and Mejia scored a major decision, 11-2, over the top-ranked AA/A wrestler in W.V. at 138.
UNION COUNTY TOURNAMENT
At counties on Jan. 23, RP led all schools with five champions: Matthew Griffin (106), Mayson Harms (132), Angel Mejia (144), Julian Colon (150), and John James Ranieri (175). Griffin, Colon, and Ranieri won with pins in the finals. Harms and Mejia won by decision, 5-1 and 5-2, respectively. Brandon Scott took second at 113.
The Panthers finished fourth overall with 195.5 points. Cranford won with 244 points.
Before heading to West Virginia, RP took down Johnson 59-42 to improve their team record to 8-2. Like all home matches this season, RP hosted on the middle school gym floor, which carries a nostalgic feel since the school was the borough’s high school until the early 1960s.
The Panthers grapple at home against Summit on Feb. 2 and against Elizabeth on Feb. 3.
