The No. 20 Kingsway Regional High School wrestling team outlasted Camden Catholic, 33-31, on Friday night.
But the match – despite the score, competitiveness and some tight individual duals – was a far cry from some of the previous battles between traditional state heavyweights.s
With both teams dealing with short-term injuries and illness, each squad forfeited three matches. The Fighting Irish forfeited all three matches from 175 to 215.
“Our goal is to get ready for the playoffs, in case where rest helps, we’re trying to get them some rest right now and (Camden Catholic coach) Billy (Heverly) is in the same position,” said Kingsway coach Mike Barikian. “For South Jersey wrestling, this is disappointing that this is what the Kingsway-Camden Catholic match was. This should have been an exciting dual with a lot more interesting matchups.
“You’re missing all these guys, but you get here and say ‘Hey, we still have a dual meet on our hands here. It could still be fun.’ But this isn’t the match either of us hoped it would be.”
Jason Meola clinched the match for the Dragons at 106 pounds, rallying from a 4-1 deficit at the start of the third period against Lazerus Joyce. Down 5-3 after cutting Joyce, Meola took Joyce to his back for the decisive points in an 8-5 victory.
Meola said he tried not to think about the match coming down to his shoulders.
“I just focused on my match, score points, don’t worry about winning or losing, not just for myself but my team,” said Meola. “He had an underhook and I was able to spin through that, pressure that shoulder down and caused his hips to flip.
“I don’t know if it’s picking each other up, but we can hold it down and do what we have to, even missing a few guys.”
The win put Kingsway ahead 33-19 with two weights to go. While Kingsway had wrestlers weighed in at 113 and 120, their goal would have been strictly to save points and Barikian opted to forfeit and be happy with his two-point win, especially with a challenging quad match Saturday.
Kingsway was missing state placewinner Nate Taylor and two-time state qualifier DJ DiPietro among others, while the Irish were without three upperweights, including standout heavyweight Tyler Byrd.
The positive for both teams is they’re expecting to be whole on Feb, 6 when the team postseason begins.
Camden Catholic was trying to knock off its second straight Top 20 team despite forfeiting three weights. It throttled previously undefeated Seneca, 43-27, on Wednesday.
Kingsway improved to 10-8, while Camden Catholic fell to 9-4.
While Meola’s win was the clincher, he wouldn’t have been in the position if not for Sean Kirwin, who pulled out a key 4-0 victory at 157 pounds over Jack Baylouny.
“Huge,” agreed Barikian. “That one goes under the radar. I love Sean Kirwin. He does everything right. He’s a soccer player, but he does every single thing asked. He’s been wrestling incredibly tough and incredibly well, and I feel good sending him on the mat because I know the effort we’re going to get.”
Camden Catholic got a 7-4 decision from Kage Jones (138) over Brendan Callahan, a major decision out of Wayne Rold (144) against Tommy DiPietro and a 3-1 victory from Austin Craft (165) over Ben Dryden.
But while Craft’s win gave the Irish a 19-9 lead, the three forfeits put them behind by eight points with four bouts left.
“They are competing with three forfeits and four at times,” said Heverly. “Our guys are mad at themselves for not getting more points to cover that, that’s how they’ve been thinking all year. They have to maximize points to even be in matches. I was telling somebody today we feel we have to win every match.
“I thought there would be a crowd here and there wasn’t a big crowd, so I think people were on to the fact that these teams are having trouble keeping guys in the lineup.”
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Bill Evans covers the BCSL, Cape-Atlantic, Colonial, Olympic and Tri-County Conference. He can be reached at bevans@njadvancemedia.com.
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