HAMMONTON—Another frustrating season of rebuilding continued for St. Joseph Academy’s wrestling team last week, as the Wildcats dropped their final home meet of the year to Vineland 65-18.
As has been the case in recent seasons, St. Joseph competes with a short-handed roster. Against Vineland, the Wildcats dressed just seven wrestlers.
The result has been several forfeits every time the Wildcats step on the mat, a situation that often places St Joe in a huge hole to begin each dual meet.
Against Vineland, for example, St. Joseph forfeited seven matches, surrendering 42 points in the process.
After forfeiting the first three matches against Vineland, Mason Hollywood controlled much of his match against Leland Cinkowski before the Vineland wrestler turned the tide of the match early in the third period and pinned Hollywood in 4:44 to win at 126 pounds.
At 132 pounds, Vineland’s Jayden Cinkowski outscored St. Joe’s Joe Gregory 18-2 to record a technical fall in 4:15.
Two more forfeits at 138 and 144 pounds set up St. Joe’s first win of the night, as Colin Steiner pinned Caden Barnes in 3:56.
Nick Melchiore followed a 160, taking down Vineland’s Lionel Powell in 2:19.
At 165, Vineland was back on the scoreboard, pinning Kieran MacDonald. St. Joe won at 175, as Bobby Butkus pinned Zach Echevarria in 1:30.
At 190 pounds, Vineland’s Noah Cruz pinned Gavin Steiner in 1:27. The final two matches were awarded to Vineland on forfeits.
Last weekend, St. Joseph competed at a quad meet hosted by BCIT-Westampton.
Wrestling against Haddon Twp., St. Joseph lost 69-12. Melchiore pinned Antonio Reyes in 21 seconds to win at 157 pounds and at 190, Gavin Steiner pinned Elijah Borowicz in 1:15.
Against host BCIT, St. Joe lost 65-11. Hollywood won a 17-2 technical fall against Nathan
Sever at 126 and at 157, Melchiore pinned Kerem Gungor in 29 seconds.
Finally last weekend, St. Joseph lost to Moorestown 72-12. Colin Steiner pinned Jeremy Jiang in 5:20 at 150 pounds and at 157, Melchiore took down Nasir Briggs in 1:01.
On February 6, St. Joe wrestled at Egg Harbor Twp. in a tri-meet that also included Oakcrest. Those results were too late for this edition.