Wrestling Clinches Patriot Crown with Win Over Delran

The Pirates wrestling team took down Delran Wednesday night 38-24 to win the Patriot crown outright. Here is our recap of the night.

Cinnaminson is now 12-5 overall and finishes the year with a 5-0 division record.

“I think the guys know that this match was not the end all be all of the season,” head coach Mike McConnell said. “It’s a rivalry. It’s a lot of fun. The kids know what they are wrestling for here. I just told them to go out and wrestle.”

Wednesday night was a preview of Monday night’s South, Group 2 first round matchup between the #4 Pirates and the #5 Bears.

“I’m just happy the kids got to wrestle in front of such a large crowd,” McConnell said. “It’s also good for the sport for that many people to see such a good match.”

The match started at 120 and the Pirates picked up their first win at 126 as Austin Gabay picked up a 9-0 major win to give Cinnaminson a 4-3 lead.

The match went back and forth the rest of the night.

“Some of our guys could’ve been a little more aggressive tonight in the toss up matches,” McConnell said. “The more they know their opponents, the more they think about it too much.”

Jahmil Williams picked up a win at 138 with a takedown in extra time.

Ryan Teague then won at 145 with a 15-0 technical fall early in the second period.

“I wrestled him last year so I just went out and stuck to my gameplan,” Teague said. “I knew it would be alright. Whenever we have Delran we know it’s going to be a good one. There’s going to be a good crowd. I think that hypes up the team. Having them again Monday, it will be another great match.”

Joe Saxton followed Teague with a technical fall of his own at 152, 26-9.

“I live on my feet, it’s what I’ve always done,” Saxton said. “Coach told me to go out there and get the tech win. I went out there and just did what I do.”

“I love home matches. We will have another one against this team on Monday. Home match. Delran. Nothing better.”

The Pirates went up 17-9 before Delran went up 21-17 via a pin.

At 195, Shaun Davilla picked up a pin in 1:08 to give the Pirates a 23-21 lead in front of a large crowd.

After a long bout at 220 the Bears led 24-23 with three bouts remaining.

Keith Swartley picked up his 110th career win with a pin at 285 in 1:40 to give the Pirates the lead for good at 29-24.

“It feels great. A lot of teams try to bump around and jump weight classes,” Teague said. “It doesn’t matter where we go. We just do our job.”

Alex Marter clinched the victory at 106 with a 6-1 win to move the score to 32-24.

Mike Florkowski ended the night with a pin in 1:13 at 113 to give the Pirates a 38-24 victory.

Wrestling visits Shawnee Saturday for a quad that also features Collingswood and Absegami at 9am.

“They’re tough teams,” Teague said. “We’ve been working really hard in the practice room so as long as we go out and keep doing our thing we should be alright.”

MATCH RESULTS

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