Eaton, Devlin, Cowan, Weed, Rhodes and Taylor to Region South
The Absegami Braves advanced six wrestlers, nearly half their varsity lineup, to this weekend’s NJSIAA Region South Tournament at Cherry Hill East High School. The top four in each weight class will advance to the following weekend’s state championships at Phillipsburg High School. The first round of the region tournament will be a harrowing single-elimination round. The double elimination rule will not begin until the quarterfinals.
Freshman Christopher Eaton is seeded tenth at 113, senior Jack Devlin is tenth at 126, Sophomore Sean Cowan is seeded third at 138, Junior Ray Weed is the fifth seed at 170, Sophomore George Rhodes is seeded third at 182 and senior Mikal Taylor is the second seed at 220.
Eaton is 9-0 and will face seventh-seeded Tyler Lucia of Washington Township in the first round. Lucia, a sophomore, is 8-1. Devlin’s match will quicken the pulse of old-school Absegami wrestling fans. The senior will face Oakcrest’s seventh-seeded Hogan Horsey. Horsey, a junior, is 2-0. Devlin has never wrestled Horsey in high school but lost in last year’s Region 8 tournament to Horsey’s older brother. This should be a great match.
Cowan is 9-0 and will wrestle Delsea’s 14th-seeded Marius Fennal. Fennal, a junior, is 7-5. One of those five losses was to Cowan in the Braves’ season-opening dual meet at Delsea. Cowan decked Fennal in 3:23. Weed is back in region wrestling action for the first time since his freshman year. He missed all of last year recovering from surgery to repair injury. He is 7-2 this year and will meet 12th-seeded Michael Adelizzi of Middle Township in an odd sort of match. Adelizzi was not in the lineup in the teams’ dual meet earlier this season and is just 1-4 this season. Last year he was 33-12. This should be far more interesting than your normal fifth vs. 12th seed matchup.
Rhodes is 8-0 and will wrestle 14th-seeded Izaiah Otero of Highland Regional. Otero is a junior and is also 8-0. Taylor is 7-2 at 220 and will wrestle 15th-seeded Christian Brady of Paulsboro. Brady is a junior with a 6-1 record.