Nottingham’s Jerry Andaluz works his way toward a 2nd-place finish at 170 pounds in the Nottingham Invitational Saturday. The Swamp Rats finished eighth overall (Photo by Joe “Mr. Biology” Demyon).
By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores
Dec. 17: The Nottingham High wrestling team had three top-four finishers and one Outstanding Wrestler in finishing eighth in its own Invitational Tournament Saturday
Sylvester Freeman took first for the Swamp Rats and was named tournament OW at 285 pounds, while Jerry Andaluz was runner-up at 170 and Sudesh Gurung finished fourth at 126.
Nottingham assistant coach Charlie “The Stone” Iacano takes a break from his all-you-can-eat sushi dining to yell out instructions during the Nottingham Invitational (Photo by Joe “Mr. Biology” Demyon).
Freeman steamrolled the competition with three straight pins, and needed just 4 minutes and 40 seconds to do so. He started by bringing down Warren Hill’s Duro Ajayi in 1:19 and followed that with a 47-second pin of Manalapan’s Matt Kovacs. Freeman’s championship bout went the longest as he planted Rahway’s Alex Brown in 2:34.
Andaluz won an 8-6 decision over Spotswood Mike LeRoy and a 9-4 decision over Cherry Hill East’s Blake Impagliazzo before getting pinned by Westwood’s Aiden Fernandez. Westwood won the title with six champions and eight place-winners.
Gurung pinned Rahway’s Suyai in 3:50 before being pinned by Manalapan’s Paul Santomarco in the quarterfinals.
