Long Branch Wins Hawk Classic With Five Individual Champions
Senior Joey Jasio won by fall in all three of his bouts to secure the heavyweight championship and lead Long Branch, ranked No. 7 in the Shore Sports Network Top 10, to the team title at the Hawk Classic on Monday at Manchester High School.
Jasio won by fall in 12 seconds in the quarterfinals and 15 seconds in the semifinals before completing his dominant day with a pin in 3:57 over Raritan's Aaron Daniels. Jasio was one of five champions for Long Branch. T.J. Colon won the 132-pound title with a 4-3 decision over Marlboro's Shane Mullan, Luke Arnold captured the 145-pound championship with a 7-1 decision over Allentown's Nolan Pocci and Danny Mullan defeated Toms River North's Pat O'Donnell 6-2 in the 152-pound final. Lamont Reid remained undefeated with a 4-2 decision over Allentown's Liam McDermott at 170 pounds.
Chris Dean at 113 and Peter Wersinger at 195 finished second, and Carlos Irizarry at 120 and Mike Shohet at 160 finished third.
No. 9 Raritan was second to Long Branch and had four champions crowned, including Most Outstanding Wrestler Anthony Aquilano. A.J. Erven was victorious at 120 pounds with a 52-second pin over Allentown's Sebastian Rizzo. Rizzo was the District 25 runner-up at 113 pounds last season. Russell Benson defeated Gateway's Tim Sparks 5-2 in the 126-pound final.
Aquiliano, a freshman, came from the No. 9 seed to win the 138-pound title and garner MOW honors. He defeated top-seeded Reggie Davis from Gateway, 12-11, in the quarterfinals before defeating Toms River North's Mike Johns 11-4 in the semifinals. In the final, Aquilano topped Marlboro's Mike Dukas 8-6.
Nick Bohal was victorious in the 160-pound bracket, winning by injury default over Lakewood's Marcos Quintero in the championship bout.
Finishing second for Raritan were Charles Barrale (106) at Aaron Daniels (Hwt). Jimmy VanFechtmann at 132 and Ryan Dickens at 195 finished third.
Brick junior Dean Helstowski defeated Allentown's Zach Turner 6-4 in overtime to win the 182-pound title and help the Dragons finish third. Jack Jachim was second and 220 pounds and Anthony Costanza was third at 152.
Manchester's Will Farparan defeated Wersinger 12-0 to win the 195-pound title. Christian Carney was third at 145.