Asbury Park Press from Asbury Park, New Jersey • Page 121

ASBURY PARK PRESS I SUNDAY, MARCH 3, 2002 "'ltitX NJSIAA REGION VI WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIPS Urn Safe mini S) fa SMGf l4 double-OTwin fr heads list of 7 Wi'F" repeat champs fVU i VVrl By SCOTT STUMP A i. I f. A STAFF WRITER Brady adds 100th win to accomplishments By SCOTT STUMP STAFF WRITER BRICK Pat Brady became the third wrestler in the history of Point Boro program to reach 100 career wins when he won a major decision at 140 in a NJSIAA Region VI semifinal yesterday. As he walked off the mat at Brick Memorial, he got some kind words from Brick coach Jason Nase, the wrestler who became the first from Point Boro to reach NOTES the triple-digit win mark. iT BRICK When Pinelands' Mike Molosky shook his ankle free of Dave Rogers' grasp to pull out a double-overtime win in yesterday's Region VI Wrestling Tournament final at 135, Rogers might as well have been draped on Molosky's back.

"When I won, it was like dropping a bag of bricks off me," Molosky said. "(Rogers) had nothing to lose and he wrestled great. He's so flexible, he can hang on from anywhere." Molosky's escape with five seconds left in his toughest bout of the season gave him a 4-3 win, his second region title and a spotless 30-0 record in addition to waking up the slumbering crowd at Brick Memorial after five one-sided finals. A state runner-up at 125 last season, Molosky knew he would have a battle on his hands in his second meeting with Brick Memorial's Rogers this season. "I could possibly have four more (bouts) like that in Atlantic City," Molosky said.

Also looking to go deep in the state tournament is Southern's Dan Clark, who decisioned defending region champion Brett Jankos of Brick Memorial 9-8 at 189 to win his first region title after being a runner-up at 160 last season. In contrast to known commodities like Clark and Molosky, Long Branch's Anthony Miscia went from being the fifth seed in his own district to Jbecoming the Green Wave's first region champion since 1998. Miscia defeated Brick's Tim Sramowicz, the runner-up at 152 last season, 4-3 to win the title at 145. Miscia had pinned Sramowicz in the District 23 semifinals before losing to Wall's Matt Doyle in the final. "Once I beat Sramowicz, I realized I could beat anybody in this weight class," Miscia said.

"This is my first time wrestling in the regions and once I started winning, (the momentum) just kept building." Whereas a win was a wakeup call for Miscia, it was an early-season loss to Howell's Eric No-mikos that drove Point Boro's Pat Brady to his first region title. Brady was tough on his feet, taking Manalapan's Mike Gaeta PETER ACKERMANChief Photographer Pinelands' Mike Molosky celebrates as referee John Gabrielli signals his escape and victory in double overtime against Brick Memorial's Dave Rogers. I I i- 1 "People don't realize how hard it is to get 100 wins," said Nase, whose Tim Sramowicz was on deck during Brady's match. "I'm proud of him." Brady went on to win his first region title with a 9-6 win over Manalapan's Mike Gaeta. Nase, a two-time state runner-up, can rest assured that he will remain the school's all-time leader with 112 wins.

Jeff Beverly, who became the only Point Boro wrestler to win a state title with a victory at 125 in 1999, is second on the school list with 111 wins. Shore senior Chris Gornik tied Albie Esposito as his school's all-time winningest wrestler with his 72th career win in capturing the heavyweight title. Jackson's finest Jackson coach Scott Goodale was named Region VI coach of the year after guiding his young team to the Class A South and District 21 titles along with reaching with the Shore Conference Tournament final. One to watch Toms River North's Luis Franceschi made the best of a tough situation as he went from a quarterfinal loss as the eighth seed to a third-place finish at 119. Franceschi gave eventual champion Zac Cunliffe of Howell his toughest bout of the tournament in losing 12-10 on Friday night and showed even more resilience in the consolation final.

The junior surrendered a five-point move to Manalapan's Scott Beckerman at the start of the consolation final and was nearly pinned. He not only recovered, but pinned Beckerman at 5:21 with the score tied at six, showing that he should be a wrestler to keep Brick Memorial's Marc Rosenfeld tries to turn Central's Mike Braun in the 125-pound i finaL Rosenfeld received the Most Outstanding Wrestler award. PETER ACKERMAN Chief Photographer an eye on in Tuesday's Super-Regions. Another notable third-place finish belonged to Long Branch's Joe Leon, who was third in District 23 at 135 and ended up taking third in the region. Site change The NJSIAA SuperRegion tournament on Tuesday has been moved to Brick Memorial from Red Bank, where it was held the past few seasons.

Another new wrinkle is that the champions from the eight regions all move on directly to the state pre-quarterfinals in Atlantic City rather than having to wrestle in the SuperRe-gions. The pre-quarterfinals, consisting of the top 16 wrestlers, will be seeded on Wednesday at NJSIAA headquarters in Washington Township. time in at least 20 seasons. For the second time this season, Point Beach's Rob Yeager was trailing Manasquan's Mike Dahrouge and came back to pin him, this time at 3:08 while losing 6-4 in a consolation semifinal at 112. Toms River East's Fred Pon-toriero beat Joe Blake 18-5 in the consolation at 130 for his second win over Blake in the tournament.

Blake beat Ponto-riero 5-4 during a regular-season dual meet for a key victory that helped the Green Dragons beat the Raiders for the first No strangers Brick's Vinnie Sherrier escaped in the third period for a 4-3 win over Brick Memorial's Vin Cosenzo at 103 to take third and avenge a last-second loss to Cosenzo from the District 23 final. For Heller it's more about gaining respect BRICK ad his uniform been green and gold, or red and black, had it said TRE or TRN instead of RFH, Bryan Heller it might well have received the acclaim a wrestler with a spotless 29-0 record receives at the regional level. But when you're from Rumson-Fair Haven, when your JOE ZEDALIS 7 down four times and blocking all of Gaeta's shots on his way to a 9-6 win at 140. "That took the pressure off, made me realize I had to work harder and I've been flying pretty good since then," said Brady, who was the runner-up at 140 last season. Daily practice wars between Manalapan's Nick Manochio and teammate Dan Hilt have made them into a formidable duo.

Manochio, a sophomore, won a region title in his first region tournament with his second win this season over Jackson's Jeff Pasca-rella, this one an 11-7 decision, to improve to 31-0. Hilt, who was seventheighth at 103 as a sophomore last season, won his second region title with a 8-3 win over Howell's Jay Ucci at 112. Hilt was one of seven repeat winners, as Howell's Zac Cunliffe (119), Brick Memorial's Marc Rosenfeld (125), Molosky (135), Toms River East's Devin Mesanko (152) and Vinnie Salek (160) and Wall state champion Nick Roy (171) all added to their trophy cases. It was the third region title for Roy and Rosenfeld, the latter of whom set the Mustangs' school record with 125 career wins to pass old teammate Rob Jimenez and earn most outstanding honors for the tournament. At 130, Bryan Heller became the first wrestler in Rumson-Fair Haven history to win a region title with a 16-10 decision over Southern's Dan Hall.

Chris Gornik (30-0) became the first Shore Regional wrestler in 24 years and the second in school history to win a region title after pinning Middletown North's Anthony Va-lasa at heavyweight. Ocean's Tom Rant (215) picked up his first region title and the first in two years for the Spartans. rS Vx a gash on his head examined. "I know people look at me and think, 'He's from but I think we earned a little respect today." And the fact that the respect came the old-fashioned way made it even more special. Heller won because of big-time technique, not small-school luck.

"People ran away from him all season," Beaver said. "You don't know how many times a team would come in and the 130-pounder mysteriously would be two pounds overweight." Sometimes flattery comes in the most unsuspecting way. "I think I'm a little known by the fans," Heller said. But not as well known as if his wins came in big matches against name opponents with titles and rankings on trie line. "I can't worry about that," Heller said.

"All I can do is go out and wrestle the way I want to wrestle." Which was as good as any other regional champion did yesterday at Brick Memorial. "I knew I would be the first if I won, but it hasn't really hit me yet," Heller said. But it will. Rumson-Fair Haven has a regional wrestling champion. And Heller, he has something even better respect.

Joe Zedalis is an Asbury Park Press staff writer, joezeid app.com. i PETER ACKKRMANChief Photographer Rumson's Bryan Heller goes for a reversal on Southern's Dan Hall in the 130-pound final. Heller won 16-10. list of season-long accomplishments is topped by a victory at the looked-down-upon Holmdel Christmas Tournament, skepticism steps right out on the mat with the guy you're wrestling. It didn't matter that Heller is a kid who attends "The Edge," the state-re-knowned wrestling club in Kenilworth that builds wrestling champions like Hovnanian builds houses.

It didn't matter that Heller systematically demolished every opponent placed before him, when they didn't run and hide, of course. It didn't matter that he wrestled his way into the final 12 at the Meadow-lands last year. Heller might as well have been the invisible man. Because when people looked at the 130-pound bracket at the NJSIAA Region VI Championships, they saw everyone else and a kid from Rumson. "We heard people talking about Joe Beaver said.

"I think he showed everyone who he is on his feet." Heller was masterful in the neutral position. He scored five takedowns in a 16-10 win over Dan Hall of Southern and became the first regional wrestling champion in school history. And as for the big boys, his victories in the tournament came against wrestlers from Middletown North, Toms River East and Southern Regional. "I was looking forward to this all season," said Heller, who spoke as he had Blake (from Brick), and Fred Ponto-riero (Toms River East) and Mike Smith (Point Boro)," Rumson coach Jerry Beaver said. "They talked about (Brick Memorial's Kasey) Stahlin not being here.

But no one was talking about Bryan." In some ways, wrestling is infested with a bit of snobbery, because it doesn't matter who you are, you aren't a somebody until you beat the big boys. "The last thing I told him before he went out was, 'Show them who you.