Sports
Ocean City Wrestlers Fall Short of Rival Hammonton in Semifinals of 8-Team Event
The Red Raiders go 2-1 at the Blue Devil Duals in Hammonton.
The Ocean City High School wrestling team settled for third place at the Blue Devil Duals in Hammonton on Saturday.
The Red Raiders were 2-1 on the day and beat Winslow Township, 48-27, to take third of eight teams.
Ocean City cruised to a 76-6 win over Riverside in the first round, and lost to host Hammonton, 47-33, in the semifinals. Pennsville, one of the best teams in southern New Jersey, won the championship, and Hammonton finished second.
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"We knew Hammonton was going to be a good team and it was going to be a close match, and Pennsville has a great team, too," Ocean City coach Dave Castellini said. "We knew those two teams would be the best teams here, and we had to win one of those matches to get to the final."
"It was a good day for the team," Ocean City senior Coley O'Brien said. "I would have liked to beat Hammonton, but they are really tough. We wrestled well throughout the day."
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In the third-place match, the Red Raiders won nine matches, including seven of the final nine.
The best bout of the day may have been Jake Terry's 13-10 decision over Winslow's Josh Sweeney at 171 pounds.
Terry was down late but scored five points in the final few seconds to win.
"I think I was down one, so I had to cut him (loose)," Terry said. "I used a cement mixer or that's what it's called where I come from." He transferred from Pennsylvania as an eighth-grader.
"It was a nice match," Castellini said. "Any time you win a match in less than five seconds it's a good thing."
It was almost a given that the Ocean City and Hammonton were going to meet in the semifinals.
Hammonton jumped out to a 20-point lead, but the Red Raiders charged back with pins by Anthony DeSantis (171), Lucas Pearson (215) and Josh Johnson (Heavyweight), but it wasn't enough to get past the hosts.
The two teams will meet again in Ocean City on Jan. 25.
"We wrestled well today," Castellini said. "We would have liked to have beaten Hammonton, but we get a chance to redeem ourselves in about a week."
O'Brien, Dan Pettit (140), Blakely Faunce (145), DeSantis, Terry, Pearson and Johnson all won three matches for the Red Raiders.
Ocean City travels to Deptford for a quad-meet that also includes Penns Grove and Schalick at 11 a.m. on Monday.
