Region5Fridaynight

I was talking to Andy Fitz, the assistant coach at Delaware Valley, during last week's District 17 tournament and we discused how difficult 140 would be at Region 5. How correct a projection!

Look at how 140 turned out Friday night.

Two region runners-up from a year ago lost: Delaware Valley junior Nick LaFevre, the top seed, lost to eighth-seededed sophomore Will Buchan of Woodbridge. No. 3 seed senior Rob Bolomey of Somerville was pinned by Bishop Ahr sophomore Joe McAuley, the sixth seed. No. 2 seed Dan Liss of Bridgewater-Raritan beat seventh-seeded Matt Sanquini of Hunterdon Central 1-0.

I think fourth-seeded Ryan Smith of South Brunswick will win the weight. He had a very good match Friday night, beating J.P. Stevens junior Greg Zannetti. Some people had Zannetti a dark horse to win. So it's Smith-Buchan and Liss-McAuley in the semifinals Saturday morning. Should be entertaining.

Speaking of entertaining: is there anybody more fun to watch than Del Val senior 171-pounder Brad Gelegonya?

Del Val has freshman Bobby Stevely (103), senior Dan Kelly (112), senior Kris Sigafoos (125), junior Richie Gebert (135) and Gelegonya still in the winner's bracket. Bridgewater-Raritan has Liss, senior Adam Friedman (135), junior Wayne Hampton (152) and seniors Drew Ives (189) and Roy E. Dragon III (215) alive in the semifinals.

Tough night for North Hunterdon. The Lions were 1-7 with senior Brian Levandowski winning at 119.

By the way, I thought it was kind of strange to see North Hunterdon assistant coach Joe LaSpada coaching against one of his soccer players in the 130-pound bout where Lions' senior Andrew Boyle wrestled against Bernards' senior Rich Russoniello. Russoniello was a big contributor to Bernards' state Group I soccer title last fall. LaSpada is the Mountaineers' head soccer coach. Russoniello beat Boyle 6-4 in a pretty good bout.