King leads Middle to title in season-opening tournament; LCM produces two champs

Posted: December 15th 2024

By BRIAN CUNNIFF

CapeAtlanticLive.com

Middle Township High School wrestling coach Matt Wolf wasn’t really paying attention to the team score during the Pete Adams Memorial Tournament at Vineland High School on Saturday.

“When you’re wrestling at those types of tournaments, you’re more focused on each individual,” Wolf said. “And then looking at the names of the schools that were in it and the fact that we were missing three starters because of injuries, I looked at it as being a very tough tournament and that we were just going up there to wrestle the best we can.”

Well, Middle’s best was good enough.

The Panthers pulled off a rather significant surprise, placing four wrestlers in the finals and producing one individual champion en route to winning the championship of the 10-team event.

“Someone came up after the quarterfinals and told us we were in second place,” Wolf said. “I thought that was great, but the semifinals in a team tournament are what make or break you. But we got eight kids in the semis and four in the finals. We kind of got everyone together before the finals and third-place matches and said, ‘Hey, we have a chance to win this.’ Every point is important. And that’s kind of how it unfolded.”

Middle scored 144.5 points to finish ahead of Highland Triton (128.5). CLearview (!21.5), Audubon (118) and Lower Cape May (111.5) rounded out the top five.

Sophomore Tyler King led Middle by winning the 144-pound championship. He won his first two bouts by fall before scoring a 7-0 win in the final.

“Tyler had a really good end of the year last year as a freshman,” Wolf said. “He has a lot of talent. We had a serious conversation about what we thought he was capable of in the offseason and he’s bought into that and done everything we’ve asked him so far.”

Middle’s Dontae Kelly (132), Max Adelizzi (190) and Maurice Matthews (Hwt.) each made the finals and Connor Rowands (150) and Noah Nagle (165) each placed third.

“We were second at a bunch of tournaments last year, so it’s nice to win and it’s especially nice to win when you don’t have all your guys in there,” Wolf said. “It was really good competition. I’m really happy with how the kids performed.”

Middle is set to wrestle in its first dual match of the season Wednesday when it hosts Hammonton.

“You don’t ever take a championship for granted,” Wolf said. “We’ve worked hard for a long time to get to this point. But Hammonton isn’t going to be impressed. We have to get right back to work. We’re happy with where we are at the moment but as the saying goes, we’re not satisfied.”

Lower Cape May produced two champions at the tournament. Chase Hansen placed first at 138 pounds and Dan Byrne took top honors at 150 pounds.