Kowalik and Montuore Power Pack Over 1st Place Passaic Valley, 42-25

1/19/25

By David Yaskulka

Photos from Jen Sheppard, Sheryl Reed

Coach Chris Marold’s wrestlers desperately wanted to avenge one of their most heartbreaking losses. In February, Passaic Valley ended West Morris Central's 2023-24 team playoff hopes. Saturday (Jan. 18, 2025), the 11-1 first place (Big North) Hornets jumped to a 9-0 lead over the Pack, with their best wrestler stepping to the mat against WMC freshman Chris Kowalik.

PV’s 13-1, 16th ranked Dante Benvenuti sent eight of his last nine opponents home early.

At minimum, WMC needed Kowalik (190, 15-5) to stay off his back against the District champ and state alternate.

Kowalik aimed higher.

“I went out knowing that kid was ranked in the top 20,” he said. "I calmed myself down and just wrestled smart. I tied it up 6-6 in the third period and used top to my advantage, tiring him out and getting two sets of backs.”

Kowalik defeated Benvenuti 10-6 for perhaps Kowalik’s biggest high school win.

After a Tommy Borgia (HWT, 19-1) pin, freshman Jacob Reed (106, 6-10), who only started wrestling last year, faced a critical swing bout. The freshman left no doubt, delivering the pinfall for the Pack in just 44 seconds.

“Reed’s doing a great job at 106 even though he's not a very experienced wrester,” said senior captain Mark Montuore. “His hard work in the room shows.”

Reed’s victory gave WMC a lead it would not relinquish.

But it could have.

Montuore (113, 15-4) delivered eight pins and a tech fall in his last nine bouts, but now faced PV’s second-highest ranked wrestler, Shane Singh. Singh was the hero of last season’s playoff victory when PV won 52-30.

Montuore dominated the district finalist for a 15-7 major for the Pack, the 98th win of his career.

“I'm just letting it fly and having fun,” said Montuore. I'm also doing well with my weight and it's been helping me feel stronger.”

Brody Neill (120, 16-3) took care of business with a pin (which you missed if you looked away for a minute).

Jacob Harrison (132, 15-6) delivered a second period tech fall, the sophomore’s sixth tech or fall in the last seven.

Jonathan Cabarle (138, 10-5) left no doubt with a 33 second pin – already the freshman's eighth.

Sophomore Kurt Beyer (150, 7-14) seems to be leveling up, hanging tough against 12-1 senior district finalist Ayden Mulroony, saving two points for the team with a loss by major.

According to NJ.com, PV vs. WMC was “two of the top public school teams in the region clashing a week ahead of their respective county tournaments."

This time, WMC prevailed 42-25.

Big Wins from Borgia and Frayne Not Enough as Mt. Olive Rolls 52-18

With the #13 ranked (NJ.com) Marauders leading 32-3 in front of their packed senior night crowd, Mt. Olive coach Sean Smyth went for the jugular, bumping up his undefeated, highest- ranked (#4) wrestler, junior Nicolas Gonzalez, in an attempt to defeat WMC’s star HWT Borgia.

“After losing a match that I let slip away from me two weeks ago [against Delbarton], I couldn't let that happen again,” reflected Borgia. “So I made sure to go out there, get to my attacks quick and efficiently, while also playing some defense from his quick shots.

Borgia used his weight and speed to prevent the dynamic state qualifier and Morris County finalist from scoring a single offensive point in a statement 10-2 major victory.

But Borgia didn't think of it just in terms of W’s and L's when there are good, hard-working kids involved.

“Nico is one of my friends for a long time,” said Borgia, "and a great wrestler in his own right. Huge props to him for coming up and wrestling me in a big dual meet in front of a good crowd. Couldn't ask for a better match.”

WMC freshman Deacon Frayne (175) had provided early fireworks for the Pack with a 5-2 victory over #42 ranked junior Stephen Hayek, a district finalist.

“I knew the match was going to be hard,” said Frayne. “I just had to keep pushing through and trying my hardest no matter how much effort it took.

“A key moment was when I made it out of a scramble with little time in the third period which if I failed to escape the match would have been tied.”

Although 75% of Frayne’s bouts have ended early, he’s showing he can also go the distance against a strong opponent. He's 13-9 despite the (on average) overall toughest opponent strength on the team.

Montuore delivered WMC’s only pinfall, over a top-70 competitor, for his 97th career victory. Neill, looking for some extra mat time, delivered his third tech fall in the last five bouts (the other two were pins).

Freshman Cabarle looked competitive against senior district champ and state qualifier Brandon Beres. Michael Borgia (215, 10-7) looked strong against #64 ranked Lincoln Youtz, as did Harrison against senior #27 Matteo Eagleson, both losing by decision.

Mt. Olive brought an extraordinary 15 top-70 ranked wrestlers to the dual, including two top-10s, and 11 top-50s.

Harrison Wins WMC JV Tournament, Sheppard Silver

Lucas Harrison won the West Morris Central JV Tournament championship today (Jan. 19). Jack "Shep" Sheppard grabbed silver, and Nick Galvin bronze.

Erin Villanueva, Evan Pizzutillo and JB Wagner took fourth.

According to coach Tom Borgia, every Wolfpack wrestler had his had raised at least once.

You Should Have Seen That Guy

The NFL Giants will pick third in the 2025 2NFL draft because they had a tougher strength of schedule than Tennessee and Cleveland, even though they had the same record. The NFL is saying they were “better than they looked.”

When this writer’s son Noah was a junior on the team, it seemed he was always facing the other team’s toughest guys. Parental bias being as strong as it is, I checked the data, and in that case I was right, he had the toughest strength of schedule on the team (partly because he was often used as “shark bait” because a) Coach Ken Rossi didn’t want our best wrestlers getting beaten, and b) Noah was good at staying off his back).

Using the objective methodology of RankWrestlers.com’s Opponent Quality Score (a 0-100 scale from winless wrestlers to undefeated state champs), we looked at the strength of schedule for each WMC starter. And we looked three ways.

Avg Opponent Quality Score of Top-10 Opponents

I think this is the best measure.

Fazzino 98%

Beyer 97.5%

Frayne 95.7%

J. Harrison 94.5%

Neill 89.2%

Kowalik 83%

M. Borgia 76.1%

Garcia 70%

Hurst 67.3%

T. Borgia 65.5%

Vazquez 53.5%

Montuore 47.2%

Cabarle 44.9%

Reed 7.1%

What does it mean to face 10 guys averaging a 98% RW score? That’s like facing Pope John state medalist Jake Holly 10 times – already*. That’s what Fazzino and Beyer have already faced. They’re not quite at that level (yet), so it’s pretty easy to see where the L’s came from. Frayne, Harrison’s Neill’s and Kowalik’s schedules have also been brutal – almost like they’ve had to face Mark Montuore 10 times.

*Neill actually faced Holly this season, and beat him for the third time in a row.

Avg Opponent Quality – All Matches

Frayne 71.8%

Fazzino 68.1%

Beyer 63.8%

Neill 58.7%

J. Harrison 57.8%

M. Borgia 55.4%

Hurst 53.7%

Garcia 50.3%

This tells you that even if you have a “typically” difficult WMC schedule, like Hurst and Garcia have, on average you’re facing one of the top 25% of all wrestlers in the state every single match (generally, out of about 600 wrestlers in a weight class, fewer than 150 of them have a 50+% opponent score when you face them).

Avg. Opponent Quality Top-5 Opponents

Beyer 99.8%

Fazzino 99.5%

Garcia 99.2%

Neill 99.2%

J. Harrison 99%

Kowalik 98.9%

Frayne 98.9%

M. Borgia 95.6%

What does this one tell us? That says half our guys have already faced the equivalent of a Brody Neill or Tommy Borgia five times. Unless you’re a strong Atlantic City podium candidate, don’t be surprised if you get some (or a bunch of) losses wrestling WMC’s schedule.

Next Up

WMC travels to Sparta Jan 21, before the much-anticipated Morris County Tournament at Mt. Olive Jan. 24-25, where perennial parochial champion Delbarton will not be competing. Delbarton’s dominance has long been controversial since they bring many wrestlers from outside the county to become our county champs.

WMC returns home to face High Point Jan 28, and Immaculata Feb. 1.

Sectional (team) playoffs are February 10-16 for schools that qualify.

All schools’ starting wrestlers compete in the district individual championships Feb 22, with WMC in District 11 at Nutley, also facing Belleville, Glen Ridge, Governor Livingston, Kearny, Livingston, Montclair, Verona and West Orange.

D11 medalists (top-3) will compete in the Region 3 Championship Feb 28- Mar 1.

Top-four finishers from each of the eight regions advance to the NJSIAA State Championship in Atlantic City Mar. 6-8 where Wolfpack legends including (this century) Brandon Dean, Marisa Di Paolo (Girls States, twice), Colin Loughney, Justin LeMay, Marco Gaita, Shane Metzler (thrice), Nick Matthews, Dillon Landi and most recently Brody Neill climbed the podium in hallowed Boardwalk Hall.

About David Yaskulka

David began living his sportswriter dream to avoid concession duty when his sons Noah and Ben began wrestling for the Wolfpack in 2012. He is a passionate sustainability advocate and pet industry executive, serves as Board Chair of the Pet Sustainability Coalition, Board Director at Greater Good Charities; and Board Advisor at Arch Pet Food, rePurpose Global plastic action platform, and New Zealand Trade & Enterprise.

He invites all WMC wrestlers and their families to connect with him (and with each other!) on LinkedIn.