Six of the night’s 14 matches ended in pins for the Verona wrestlers, with one–Frank Gabriele’s pin of Christopher Parsons–happening so fast the crowd barely had time to blink. On January 18 at the Essex County Wrestling Tournament, Gabriele broke the VHS wrestling win record with his 124th victory. The Parsons pin was his fourth win since then.
John Gabriele, Frank’s twin brother, also had a pin on senior night, defeating Sayeed Bennett in 1:42. John joined VHS wrestling’s 100 career wins club at the Hackettstown quad over the weekend. Seniors Tyler Czupak, Shea Herko and Matt DiDia did not wrestle last night because of injuries. Bill Fauerbach came up at the short end of an 11-7 decision with Sebastian Rawls.
Among Verona’s other wrestlers, Michael Garcia scored a quick pin at 106 pounds, and Sam Zamloot (113) got a 12-3 major decision. Dean Palmer (126) got a pin after nearly three minutes of work, but Frank Riggio (132) came up unexpectedly in his match against Edgar Moreno. Gabe Breitenbach (152) went down after a long match against Nunzio Castaldo.
Nick Riggio (160) added to his collection of pins, but perhaps the biggest win of the night for Verona was John Pavia’s pin of Andrew Amoyaw in 3:17. Cade Byrne (220) got a 5-3 decision for his efforts. Verona’s wrestlers travel to West Essex on Friday for a 7 p.m. start.
Photo copyright Kathleen Seubert. Used by permission.
