Delbarton Nabs Two Bronze Medals at State Wrestling Championships

Delbarton's Jeff Canfora and Devon Gobbo took plenty of gambles at the state wrestling championships at Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall. Each cashed out  Sunday with a bronze medal.

Canfora beat Bergen Catholic's Connor Melde, 2-1, in overtime of the 135-pound third-place match on Sunday. Minutes later, Gobbo edged Boonton's Eric Fajardo, 1-0, in the 140-pound third-place match.

Green Wave head coach Bryan Stoll said Canfora, a senior, and Gobbo, a junior, were part of one of his best squads. Delbarton send a best-ever eight grapplers to Atlantic City.

"It's a special year, a special group of kids to win all the championships that we did," Stoll said. "We had a lot of fun together. We spent a lot of time together. I think the guys genuinely liked each other. It's a great thing to have  team like that. Hopefully next year we can build the same type of camaraderie with the guys. At the end of the day, if they're getting along and they're happy, they're going to compete well for each other."

It was Canfora's second straight straight bronze finish. He nailed third place last year at 130 pounds.

"I had to give it everything I had," he said. "I didn't want to go out my last high school match as a loser."

And Canfora didn't, even though he said he had never seen Melde wrestle before Sunday. But Canfora said he needed to be aggressive.

"I knew he was defensive," Canfora said. "I just tried to break him, get past his defense a little bit. It was tough. He's a great wrestler. He has great defense. All of his matches are close like that."

Canfora, who will wrestle for the University of Pennsylvania next year, said the match was a good primer for his college career. "I've got to get used to" defensive wrestlers, he said.

Canfora won in dramatic fashion. He entered OT tied, 1-1, with Melde and won with an escape with just seconds left in the latter 30-second period, ripping his right leg from Melde's grasp.

"I knew it was either do or die at that point," Canfora said. "If it had gone to a rideout, he would have had the choice and he would have gotten out. So I had to ride him [in the first 30-second period] or lose."

Gobbo faced about as much trouble from Fajardo. His third-period escape sealed the victory.

Gobbo beat Fajardo three times this season. But Sunday's wasn't the win he wanted. Gobbo said he was still disappointed in Saturday's semifinal loss to High Point's Drew Wagenhoffer, the eventual state champion.

But Gobbo said he couldn't let it affect his game.

"It's still my job to go out there and win and represent Delbarton and carry myself in a good manner," he said. "So I knew I just had to go out there and keep wrestling."

Gobbo said he'd use Saturday's loss as fuel for next year.

"The match just didn't go my way," he said. "I'll just keep training and keep training harder than I did this year."