By Jens Velasquez
Morristown High School seniors Desmond Towns (152 pounds), Patrick Murphy (170) and Kyle Allison (220) all captured District 9 championships over the weekend as the New Jersey State Wrestling tournament moves on to Union High School for Region 3 competition.
Junior Frank Crippen (120) also extended his post-season by placing second. Sophomore Freddy Ruiz (285) saw his season end with a tough 1-0 loss in the third place consolations to just miss joining his teammates. All three winners receive byes into Friday night’s quarter-final round while Crippen will wrestle in Wednesday’s preliminary round.
Wrestlers who finished in second and third place from Districts 9, 10 11 and 12 will wrestle in this “do-or-die” single elimination round. Wednesday’s winners will move on to the Friday night quarterfinals. All wrestlers making it to Friday night quarters are guaranteed wrestling into Saturday – either in the semi-finals or wrestle-backs.
All three Colonial champions also provided the most drama, as Desmond’s and Patrick’s winning points occurred in the last 10 seconds of hotly contested bouts. The 220 lb. final was also exciting as Kyle’s opponent was relentless in his many attempts to throw him and duplicate the Morris County final outcome – but Kyle was ready this time and came out on top.
Both Desmond and Kyle were awarded the top seeds in their weights with Patrick third and Frank eighth. Unofficially (after a little digging), the last time MHS had two Number One seeds in Region 3 was way back in 1989 when Jay and Mark McCollough were the tops seeds at 135- and 160 pounds, respectively. Teddy Jones (171) and Rob Murphy (189) were seeded Number Two in 1989, which also marked the third consecutive year that MHS had qualified seven wrestlers for Region 3.
Good Luck Guys!
2012 REGION 3 PAIRINGS – MHS
Frank Crippen 8th seed 120 lbs JR 28-8
Frank makes his third trip in as many tries to Union and faces Andy Santamaria of Roselle Park (19-16). NJ state runner-ups Heilmann and Magaldo, sixth-place Rogers and state qualifier Kalimtzis are all in this loaded bracket. Throw in Morrison who is 1-1 vs. Kalimtzis and this makes Region 3’s 120 lbs. one of the toughest weight classes in the region if not the whole state. Frank’s first round appears to be a favorable matchup for him.
Desmond Towns 1st seed 152 lbs SR 23-4
Desmond also makes his third trip to Region 3 after placing in the top three in 2011 and going to Atlantic City for the NJ State tournament. As the top seed and only state qualifier at 152 pounds, Des is rewarded with meeting the winner of the lowest seeded district runner-up and the highest ranked third-placer. If seeds go accordingly Des should meet Dylan Painton from NJ’s number one team, South Plainfield.
Patrick Murphy 3rd seed 170 lbs SR 31-7
Pat made his first career high school tournament victory count in a big way by throwing his opponent to his back with under 10 seconds to go in the District 9 170-pound finals. This dramatic win earned the senior the District 9 Outstanding Wrestler award. Here’s a trivia question for you: Who was the last MHS D9 Outstanding Wrestler? If seeds hold, Pat will again meet defending Region 3 champion JP Christiano of Cranford.
Kyle Allison 1st seed 220 lbs SR 26-7
It took three weeks, but senior Kyle Allision got his chance to turn the tables on finals opponent Vin Coiro of Boonton. Kyle was on his way to a Morris County title winning 4-1 when… you can read about it here.
