Jake Ferry, Joel Gonzalez, Jesse Wagner, and John Stockelberg of the Verona High School wrestling team are headed to the Region 3 championship after garnering second- and third-place medals at yesterday’s District 10 championship in Nutley. Ferry, a senior, also stopped the action after earning a coveted 100th win in his high school wrestling career.
Ferry (top right) came into Districts as the No. 2 seed at 150 pounds and got a pin on Livingston’s Colin Pulver in the opening quarterfinal match. He then went on to pin Nutley’s Aidan Rotbaum in 2:38 before coming up short against No. 1 seed Ben Levy of Delaware Valley. The loss to Levy has been Ferry’s only loss thus far this season.
Wagner, who was wrestling at 126, pinned Noah Pantaleon of Livingston in 5:49 in the quarterfinals. He then got a 1-0 decision over Kyle Cassidy of West Orange in the semifinals before falling to Jaden Perez of Delaware Valley, in the finals. The junior, who also plays football and lacrosse, has a 26-9 record on the season.
Gonzalez (144) pinned Nutley’s Clark St Amant in 2:57 in the quaterfinals. He defeated Michael Hasson of Delaware Valley, 7-6, in the semis before falling to top-seeded Rocco Negron of Belleville in the finals. The junior stands at an impressive 31 wins and 5 losses on the season.
Heavyweight Stockelberg, a junior wrestling at 285, pinned Livingston’s Winston Da Silva, in just 42 seconds in his quarterfinal openers. But he came up short against No. 2 seed Gabriel McCulloch of Bloomfield in the semis.
Several other VHS wrestlers also competed in the District 10 championship. In the first round, sophomore Henry Cherep, wrestling at 138, fell to Franco Russomanno of Belleville.
In the quarterfinals, John Loudon (106) was pinned by Matthew Pagan of Kearny. Loudon, a sophomore, finished with a 9-9 record on the season. Dante Palmer (120) was pinned by Belleville’s Leo Tiankee. The freshman compiled a 14-10 record in his first varsity year. Nyziah Mendez (132) was pinned by Nutley’s Antonio Maiden.2:30. Cristian Latorre, a senior wrestling at 157, fell to Sean Harrington of West Orange. Latorre finished with an 11-2 season. Wrestling at 165, junior Gavin Gonch was pinned by Saanya Kalra of Glen Ridge. At 175, senior Nicolae Stanescue was pinned by Sean Vilchez of Nutley. Leo Navarro (190), who is only a sophomore, had to go up against top-seeded Anderson Olcott of Delaware Valley and lost. Joey Vallone (215) fell to Alejandro Valencia of Bloomfield. The senior ended with a 13-13 record.
The Region 3 tournament will be held next weekend at West Orange High School.
A previous version of this story had incorrect win/loss records for Wagner and Gonzalez.
