Magaldo Takes Second in State Tournament

Freshman Mike Magaldo took second place in the 112-pound weight class at the state wrestling tournament in Atlantic City on Sunday.

Magaldo lost in the final match to Anthony Ashnault of South Plainfield in a 7-1 decision that saw the Watchung freshman wrestling aggressively and going for take downs against the two-time state champion.

"I knew I needed to set up my shots better,” he said. “Its something I didn’t do today.”

Magaldo started out strong, bringing Ashnault to a stalemate through the first period. He fell behind 2-0 in the second on a reversal and, despite scoring an escape point early in the round, lost for good on a near-fall that knocked him to second place.

Ashnault is a familiar opponent for the Watchung Hills grappler; he came in second behind Ashnault in the Region 3 Tournament earlier in the winter.

Watchung head coach Danny Smith said that Magaldo showed signs of improvement despite the loss.

“We lost to that kid three times this year,” he said of Magaldo's season record against Ashnault. “[Magaldo] turned on him a few times and rode out on him for a whole period, so he is making improvements on one of the best guys in the state.”

Smith said he wasn’t surprised to see the two meet up again in the state finals, but that Magaldo had hoped to take first.

“Coming into states, I thought he had a chance to make it to the finals,” he said. “He had a good spot in the bracket and he wrestled well.”

Smith fully expects that Magaldo has not seen his last state match.

“Mike will be back next year,” he said. “He is the kind of kid that is going to keep working hard. I know he is already thinking about how to improve and how to work to come back next year and beat a kid like that.”

Second place doesn’t sit well with Magaldo; he said after the match he was already planning on how to get back again next year.

“I’ve never been in front of this many people before,” he said. “I was excited to wrestle here, but I wanted to do better. I’ll work on staying in position and picking my shots. I just need to focus on coming back. I won’t let this bring me down, I’ll learn from it.”