By Bob Nuse, Sports Editor
With a year of experience under his belt, Dylan D’Amore heads into this weekend’s Region 5 tournament a different wrestler than he was a year ago.
“Last year, to be honest, I walked in and had a big gulp and had an ‘Oh, no’ moment where the crowd was pretty overwhelming,” the Montgomery High junior said. “(Wednesday) night I went to scout (the pre-quarterfinals) and I was just itching to get out on the mat. I am anxious to get back out there and I can’t wait to wrestle.”
D’Amore was one of four Packet-area wrestlers to win district championships last weekend and one of 12 to advance to the Region 5 tournament. It was the second straight year that he has captured a District 18 championship.
“Last year he won districts, but it was his first year wrestling so that was a surprise,” Montgomery coach Kurt Franey said. “He has progressed so much this year. He is in a much better spot to advance through regions and advance to states. Last year was a great surprise and he had success because he was so big and athletic for his size. This year he knows how to wrestle.
“He is very into it and already planning on training in the summer and going to camp. He wants to wrestle in college. It is very rewarding to see a kid pick up the sport like that and have success.”
D’Amore won the District 18 title at 295 pounds, while his Cougar teammate Terence Rohmeyer was first at 126. In District 20, West Windsor-Plainsboro South’s Nick Maher won at 138 and the Pirates’ Duncan Kreutter won at 170.
Other region qualifiers were Princeton’s Alec Bobchin and James Verbeyst, who were both second at District 17; WW-P South’s Sean Thompson, Joseph Salerno, Griffin Valentine, and Steven O’Campo from District 20; and Montgomery’s August Rohmeyer and Nicolas Ipeker from District 18.
“I was hoping they would get through,” Franey said of his Montgomery group. “I thought maybe we could get a couple more guys through.”
The wrestlers who were not region champs had to wrestle in the pre-quarterfinals on Wednesday night. August Rohmeyer recorded a pin to defeat Ryan Craver of Monroe, while Verbeyst was a winner by pin over Shea Obado of Spotswood
Bobchin, Thompson, Salerno, Valentine, O’Campo and Ipeker all lost their matches on Wednesday.
The four district winners received byes and will wrestle in the quarterfinals tonight. D’Amore will face Dakota DeSantis of Old Bridge.
“Last year I went into districts as a No. 2 seed,” said D’Amore, who was seeded No. 1 this year. “So this year I feel like people expected me to win. I went in as a No. 1 seed and everyone in the bracket I had already beaten. But I still knew I had to go in there with my head on straight. Last year in districts the No. 1 seed at heavyweight lost to the bottom seed in the first round. You don’t want that to happen.”
D’Amore is only in his second year of wrestling and has made tremendous strides on the mat. He’s been willing to put in the work to get better and it has paid off.
“Last year I was new to the sport,” he said. “Pretty much the whole year was a learning experience. I got by on strength and athletic ability and being bigger than everybody else. This year I have a good idea of knowing how to wrestle. It comes easier.
“I think my coaches do a great job of preparing us. One of our assistant coaches, Mark Eberstein, is a bigger guy and he acts like he doesn’t care for rolling around on the mat. But you can tell he loves it and he will get out there and work with us. He would wrestle with me at the Rhino Wrestling Club and I really appreciated that.”
This weekend D’Amore hopes the hard work results in his first trip to the state finals in Atlantic City.
“What is great is that two of our three captains made it regions,” D’Amore said. “The Rohmeyer twins are great. I love having them around. They are good guys who you look up to and having them around is an extra boost.”
