Montgomery to Sayreville

Because of our new deadline times, we weren't able to get Montgomery's wins over Belleville (43-29) and Mendham (34-30) in the newspaper this week. But, obviously, the Cougars have really made an impact in the North 2 Group III tournament.

Just in their second year of varsity wrestling, Montgomery has earned a spot in the sectional final tonight at top-seed Sayreville. Who'd have thought it?

The sixth-seeded Cougars (17-7) have had similar experiences in baseball in recent years as a low seed that made it to the the sectional final

But Montgomery's wrestling team is just in its second year. They beat third seed Belleville in the section quarters Monday night, then eliminated No. 2 Mendham Thursday night.

I spoke to Montgomery assistant coach Kurt Franey late Thursday night and Kurt told me Montgomery had a 31-9 lead at one point against Mendham.

Here's the box score from the section semi:

Montgomery 34, Mendham 30
215: Conor Gaul (Mendham), d. Norm James (Montgomery), 5-3.
HWT: Giovanni Balena (Montgomery), d. Aaron Dewitt (Mendham), 6-5.
103: Erik Biago (Montgomery), p. Phil Palone (Mendham), 1:58.
112: John Moyle (Montgomery), p. Steve Jambor (Mendham), 3:36.
119: Tom Reynolds (Montgomery), d. Dan Turney (Mendham), 13-2.
125: Tyler Bobal (Montgomery), p. David Johnston (Mendham), 5:56.
130: MIke Oake (Montgomery), p. Joe Beckford (Mendham), :50.
135: J.D. Inelli (Mendham), p. Abe Kahn (Montgomery), :23.
140: Mike Glancey (Mendham), d. Matthias Cassar (Montgomery), 7-2.
145: Bill Harrington (Mendham), d. Nick Cassar (Montgomery), 2-0.
152: Alex Sottile (Montgomery), d. Brandon Van Seters (Mendham), 3-2.
160: Kevin Orchard (Mendham), d. Abdel Abouhaib (Montgomery), 4-3.
171: Nick Erdenberger (Mendham), p. Alex Balthasar (Montgomery), 2:54.
189: Brian Byrne (Mendham), won by forfeit.