By Jimmy Allinder
East Brunswick High School’s three NJSIAA Region 5 wrestling champions should be dubbed murderers’ row of 1927 New York Yankee baseball lore.
Mitchell Polito, Mark Schleifer and Alec Gleason, the Bears’ 113-, 120- and 126- pounders, respectively, captured gold medals in successive matches against competitors from the same school: Hunterdon Central Regional High School. They, along with Nicholas Lombard (145) and Kaylon Bradley (195) of Monroe Township High School and Joey Zargo (132) of South River High School advanced to the state championships March 3-5 in Atlantic City.
Polito (33-0), a junior, handily defeated Jack Bauer by major decision, 11-1. Schleifer (37-2), a senior, decisioned Hunter Graff, 7-4, and Gleason (36-3), also a senior, scored a 12-4 major decision over Peter Nace.
Lombard (32-1) was edged by Joe Casey of Bound Brook High School, 6-5, in the gold medal match — the senior’s first loss. Bradley (29-5) received the fourth and final spot after dropping a 12-5 decision to Andrew Brazicki of Bishop George Ahr High School in the third-place bout.
A major surprise occurred when Joey Zargo, a freshman and seventh seed, advanced to the 132-pound gold medal match but was pinned with a second to go by Russell Benson of Raritan High School to finish runner-up.
All awaited the state seeding meeting Feb. 27, which determined the pairings for the 32 remaining wrestlers in each weight class. The preliminary and pre-quarterfinals will be held March 3, with the quarterfinals, semifinals and initial wrestlebacks staged the following day. The finals and remaining wrestlebacks will be contested March 5.
East Brunswick coach Matt Pazinko believes all three of his wrestlers have a shot at reaching the podium (top eight) in Atlantic City.
“At this point, there are no easy roads, but if our guys wrestle their best, I can’t see them being left out of winning a medal,” he said.
Pazinko thinks Polito, in particular, should be a serious contender for a gold medal.
“He has defeated five wrestlers who are in his bracket,” Pazinko said. “He missed placing last year after losing his last match in overtime. Mitchell is more poised now, and that should help him.”
Schleifer is also on a roll at the right time of the year.
“His last two matches were Mark’s best so far,” Pazinko said about Schleifer’s win over Jaleel Gopel by technical fall, 16-1, in the regional semifinals and his finals victory over Graff. “He seems to be peaking, so I’m hoping he can top last year’s sixth-place medal.”
This is Gleason’s first trip to Atlantic City, but the senior earned it by wading through quality competition. In addition to beating Nace, he edged Bishop Ahr’s Dylan O’Connor in the semifinals. Both were state qualifiers last season.
