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Sports

Two Millers Win District Wrestling Titles

Millburn is sending five wrestlers to the Region 3 tournament.

Juniors Simon Levin and Gabe Gordon headlined what could only be described as an outstanding performance by the Millers in the annual District 10 wrestling tournament on Friday and Saturday at Millburn High School.

Both Levin (152 pounds) and Gordon (160) won district championships, and Millburn was 5-1 on the afternoon in first place and third place matches. It meaning the season continues for five Millburn wrestlers at the Region 3 Championships next week.

“Overall it was a great day for us and for more than one reason,” said Millburn head coach Mike Artigliere. “We’ve really stressed the conditioning part in the second half of the season and you could see that our guys are in really good shape.”

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Levin, who entered the tourney as the top seed at 152 pounds, coasted through the quarter-and semi-finals with back-to-back pins Madison’s Michael Coviello and Summit’s Zachary Tolles in a combined 1:38.

“I feel good. I came in as the top seed so it feels good to finish on top,” Levin said.

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In the finals against Romario Herbert of Irvington, Levin found himself trailing 5-3 heading into the third round. But Herbert was hit with back-to-back stalling penalties, tying the score at five. A subsequent Levin escape put the Miller up for good. He took Herbert to the mat and added two near fall points to win the district, 10-5, and improved to an outstanding 33-2 this season.

“I didn’t feel that worried [about falling behind] because in the counties I started down 2-0 [against Herbert] and I came back,” Levin said. “Plus, I knew that he was going to be gassed.”

“We stayed calm in the finals when he was down three points,” Artigliere said of Levin. “It’s one of those situations where you really have to know your wrestler.”

Gordon was the tournament’s second seed at 160 pounds and also reached the finals behind a pair of pins over Ed Carr of Madison and Steve Loevsky of Roselle Park. Fifth seeded Emeka Udoye of Irvington was Gordon’s surprise opponent in the finals, after knocking off top seeded Nicholas Mattia in the semi-finals.

“Gabe wrestled really well. Both he and Simon work very hard during the off-season with going to clubs and stuff like that,” Artigliere said. “Gabe has matured a lot right from the beginning of the season and he has become a lot more coachable.”

Gordon wasted little time taking control of the match, going up 5-0 behind a takedown and a three-point near fall, which would’ve likely been a pin had the first period buzzer not sounded to save Udoye. In the second period, from the top position, Gordon did not allow an escape and also rolled Udoye for three more near fall points, taking an 8-0 lead, which wound up being the final score.

“I’ve wrestled well all day. I’ve been working all year for this moment, so I think I’ve done well,” Gordon said.

Out of all of Millburn’s third place matches, Dylan Pollock’s was easily the most exciting. The sophomore 119 pounder lost by pin fall in the semi-finals to Patsy Davis (the eventual district champ). It placed him in a third place wrestle-back bout with Irvington’s Alexander Reeves, who had defeated Pollock in a dual meet earlier in the year. The Irvington wrestler controlled most of the match and was in the lead until the final 10 seconds of the match when Pollock took control.

A pair of stalling calls against Reeves turned his 4-1 lead into a 4-3 lead, and an escape by Pollock tied the score with 10 seconds remaining. Pollock was then able to take Reeves to the mat with a double leg takedown right at the edge of the circle to claim the thrilling, comeback win, 6-4.

“Pollock had lost to the kid earlier, but he didn’t let that phase him, even when he fell behind,” Levin said, impressed with Pollock’s performance.

At 171 pounds, Millburn’s Danny Freeman got the best of Barringer’s Jamel Gamble in the third place bout, via pin at 4:53. Freeman fell behind early on, following a first period takedown by Gamble. The Miller was able to escape and a Freeman takedown with under five seconds left in the period put the Miller up 3-2.

The third period began with both wrestlers tied at three points. From the down position, freeman was able to slip out and fell on top of Gamble to take a 5-3 lead. He held Gamble down until he was able to apply the pin.

At 215, top-seeded Sam Caivano bounced back to take third after a tough loss in the semi-finals to Roselle Park’s Luis Galindo, who pinned Caivano with three seconds left after Millburn’s grappler had led most of the way. In the third place bout against Tom Tracy of Madison, Caivano was simply overpowering and muscled his way to the victory.

He took Tracy to the mat four times, twice in both the first and third periods, and coasted to a 9-5 victory.

Tommy Judge also reached the semi-finals in heavyweight, but was pinned by Seton Hall Prep’s William Salovitch in 2:55. In the third place bout, he was very close against Chatham’s Greg DeLade, but wound up falling 4-3.

The Region 3 Championships begin on Tuesday at Union High School. Both Levin and Gordon will receive first-round byes and will not have to wrestle on Tuesday because they won the district. However, the three other Millers reaching the regions must win on Tuesday or their seasons are over.

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