Allentown wrestlers on a roll with District 25 approaching

Above: Allentown High School’s Drew Schreck battles Notre Dame’s Angelo D’Amico on his way to winning his match as the Allentown Redbirds host the Notre Dame Irish of Lawrenceville in the Kenneth G. Keim Jr. Dedication Match on Feb. 4. The surging Redbirds won the match, 40-33. Right: Allentown’s Alec Townsend takes down Notre Dame’s Anthony Milazzo to win his match. Kenneth Keim Jr., senior captain in 2002, was killed in an automobile accident in 2005. PHOTOS BY SCOTT FRIEDMAN When Ernest Pitts pulled out a 12- 10 overtime decision in his 220- pound bout on Feb. 4, it clinched theAllentown High School wrestling team’s 40-33 victory over Notre Dame High School. It was the team’s 10th victory in the last 13 outings after a 2-5 start.

And it was the second time in that stretch that Pitts, a junior with a 9-6 record coming into this week, got the deciding victory individually that wrapped up a team win.

“That was a good team that we beat, and we did it with one senior and three jayvee [junior varsity] kids we had to start,” coach Larry Kimport said after Allentown erased a 12-point deficit. The most noticeable absence was junior Alec Rugo at 170 pounds, out with a broken finger but expected back when the District 25 tournament begins Feb. 17 at Steinert. Rugo comes into the week with a 20-6 record. Also out with a shoulder injury and expected back for the district tournament is senior Mark Melloro, who has been out with a shoulder injury after a 15-10 start at 160 pounds.

In a season where different wrestlers have risen to the occasion, Alec Townsend, the lone senior in the lineup on Feb. 4, helped launch the comeback over Notre Dame when he got a pin at 160 pounds. Townsend is 12-12. Add to that pins by sophomores James “Jack” Mottram at 113 and Jack Giglia at 120 pounds and a victorious 12-0 decision by junior Justin Miller, the team captain, at 135 pounds against Notre Dame, and it made for another gritty victory by the 12-8 Redbirds.

Mottram is 20-6, Miller is 19-10 and Giglia is 16-13.

“Everyone is starting to wrestle all six minutes,” Kimport said. “Miller is a soldier. He’s the first one at practice and the last to leave. At 138, he’s in the mix with the toughest kids.”

“It’s a great feeling with a young team, and we have a tougher schedule,” Miller said. “But we’re working hard in practice to push each other to get better. It’s challenging, but I have a bunch of teammates who can and want to get better.”

Is the turnaround surprising?

“I think so,” Kimport said. “We lost eight seniors off last year’s team, and some people thought that would be a disaster. A lot of young guys turned it on. We were hoping to turn it on sooner, but we hit a rough patch at the start of the season, and in the second half of the season we got on a roll.”

Pitts got the other clinching victory — a 6-4 decision — in Allentown’s 28-20 victory over Hopewell Valley, the division champion and Mercer County Tournament champion. Allentown finished in third place in the county tournament — a commendable achievement, with many wrestlers gone from last year’s runner-up finish that included two-time state place-winner Ross Scheuerman, who went on to early success in a college football career at Lafayette, and Tyler Maul, among others.

The Redbirds caught fire a bit too late to collect enough power points to make the NJSIAA sectionals, but there have been many high points already.

“That victory over Hopewell Valley was our biggest in the last four or five years,” said Kimport.

“That was the turning point,” said Frank Juba, a junior who leads the team with a 21- 5 record at 195 pounds. “After that start of the season, we worked really hard in practice and started getting a lot more serious. The young kids are doing great. We expected a lot from them, and they’ve held their own and pulled their weight.”

And as another indicator in that turnaround, Kimport noted, Allentown in the county tournament outscored teams it had lost to early in the season. “That legitimized us,” Kimport said. “In the first half, they did not believe in themselves, with so many young wrestlers. But I told them after the Notre Dame match that this is what the future looks like, and it looks good.”

For now, the Redbirds are looking to end their dual-meet season with five straight victories, with two matches left — on Feb. 8 at Robbinsville and a tough one on Feb. 10 at home against Lawrence — before the district tournament.

“We have high hopes for that [district tournament],” Kimport said. “There, if you have someone get in the top three places [to advance to the Region VII tournament at Robbinsville], you’re all right. It’s not easy, but this is a hard-working team.”

And one that has gritted many close victories, without many bonus points of pins or technical falls, in a Colonial Valley Conference that has many big pinning teams.

“We’re not taking anybody lightly in districts,” Juba said. “We have really good kids in a lot of weight classes who should do well. We’re all fired up for it.”

Juba, who also was a two-way starter for the football team that made the state playoffs for the first time and got a second straight winning season, said his success goes back to his dedicated offseason workouts that got him stronger.

But the “sleeper” of the District 25 tournament for Allentown, says Kimport, is sophomore Chris Weritz. At that time of the season, wrestlers with records that may have a little less luster often rise to the occasion and wrestle at their best. That offers possibilities for wrestlers such as juniors Drew Schreck, who is 15-10 at 145 pounds, and Jake Koch, who is 15-11 at 182. Another one who Kimport said “has turned it on and learned how to wrestle” is sophomore heavyweight Jake Stein. His record is 8-14, but he has won five of his last eight bouts. “We now have a legitimate heavyweight,” said the coach.

The rest of the lineup looking to turn it on in the districts includes Robert Beck, a sophomore who is 11-14 at 106 pounds, and Connor Roy, a junior who is 12-15 at 132 pounds.