Shore opens dual meet season with a key win New format doesn’t faze Blue Devils as they top Monmouth, 42-27

Shore opens dual meet season with a key win
New format doesn’t faze Blue Devils as they top Monmouth, 42-27

Chris Kelly Shore’s Matt Mayer, 160 pounds, tries to put Monmouth Regional’s Paul Procopio on his back during a dual meet last week at in West Long Branch.

You always want to start your year off with a win, and Shore Regional’s wrestling program did just that Tuesday when they downed the Golden Falcons of Monmouth Regional, 42-27.

Not only did the Blue Devils put a new lineup on the mat. The rules for the high school wrestling have had a few changes, but coaches’ strategies changed dramatically.

With new restrictions for weight, and an out-of-the-hat system for deciding which weight class will be featured in the first bout, Shore was able to adjust, winning nine of the 14 weight classes.

Starting off the home team with back-to-back victories were Matt and Mike Mayer.

Matt Mayer kicked off the night with a 1:14 pin-fall at 160 pounds, while his twin brother Mike won the 171-pound bout, 8-6.

Shore decided to forfeit the 189-pound division to Monmouth’s Rich Farrah, before Justin Lugones added four team points to the Blue Devils’ score.

Lugones bumped up to 215 pounds to face Mike West, and used two different throws to anchor a 15-7 win.

Shore jumped to a 19-6 lead when Chris Gornik beat Reggie Wright with a 19-second pin-fall at heavyweight.

It wasn’t until the 103-pound division that Monmouth won a bout on the mat.

Joe Silva controlled the bout for a 16-5 major decision with Tim Tupy following with a pin at 112. Tupy took Mike Crowell to the mat, then forced him on his back for a 56-second pin-fall.

Shore quickly answered with a trio of victories, with Eric Urban (119 pounds) using a throw to put Pat Bryant onto his back for a 25-second pin, and Randy Green (125 pounds) recording the fastest pin of the night at 16 seconds.

As hard as Tom Hayes tried to pin Chris Stackhouse, using a power half nelson and leg series, the Falcon couldn’t register the pin. Hayes had to settle for a 6-3 victory at 135 pounds.

Monmouth reeled off two more wins at 140 and 145 pounds, before Shore halted their progress.

At 140 pounds, Aimam Meshel scored a takedown with 26 seconds left to break a 4-4 tie with Tom Caruso to win 6-4.

James Baner pinned Brian Vierra in 33 seconds to claim victory at 145 pounds.

Mike Szczurek ended the night for Shore with a 1:54 pin-fall at 152 pounds.

The aforementioned rules changes are intended to give high school wrestling matches a different look this winter. If the luck of the draw has anything to do with it, heavyweights may no longer be wrestling to empty gyms because the match has already been decided.

Taking its cue from collegiate wrestling, which began determining the wrestling order for dual meets by a draw from the hat last year, the wrestling order for matches will now be determined by a prematch draw.

Instead of the previous standard of wrestling in order from 103 up to heavyweight, matches will now start with the weight class that has been picked out of the hat, following the prematch weigh-in, an hour before a match starts. For instance, if the weight class chosen is 145, the match will start at that weight and proceed up in order. The final weight class in that event would be 135.

Any order is now possible and that will make it more difficult for coaches to bump wrestlers up or down during a match to create the favorable matchup they want.

The rule change has generally been praised by Shore coaches, who don’t think it will give any team an advantage that it didn’t already have.

Wrestlers themselves won’t have the certainty of knowing exactly when they will be wrestling. The change in order means the 103 or 112 pounders, who have done their work early and were spectators afterward, could now be taking the mat with the match on the line. Likewise, the upper weights, who usually wrestle with the match on the line, could be starting things off.