Upper Dublin sets program record with 20 wins

WHITEMARSH >> Upper Dublin stayed hot Wednesday night, defeating Plymouth Whitemarsh, 39-17, for its 11th straight win and program-record 20th win of the season.

“They’ve been wrestling together for many years,” Upper Dublin coach Dave Jones said after his team broke the 2013 team’s record of 19 wins. “The seniors drive the thing. We’re solid up and down the lineup. Putting guys out there against better guys and they do the job. We’re not giving up pins, that’s a critical piece.”

“It means a lot,” senior Tommy Clayton said. “When I was a freshman, especially, we had a lot of freshmen in our lineup that are now seniors. We were bad as freshmen, but we just kept working on it together. Now we’re really coming together as a team.

“Our practices definitely got more intense, which I think helped a lot. We’ve worked on a lot of technique, which has been showing in the matches. We’ve been sticking guys, which is helping us win, and we’re staying off our backs.”

The Cardinals (20-2) jumped out to an 18-0 lead after forfeits at 107 and 121 and wins by Zach Gallagher (114) and Joseph Sirianni (127). Gallagher won his match, 5-2, while Sirianni won, 10-4.

Dan Gorman (139), Clayton (160) and Noah Morganstin (189) added wins with pins. Gorman’s pin came in the first period while Clayton and Morganstin finished their matches in the second. Clayton ended his with less than five seconds left in the period.

“I guess I got lucky that I barely got it off,” Clayton, who improved to 21-7 this season, said. “I did the turk on that guy and that’s been working for me a lot. It’s just a good move.”

Philop Roll finished out Upper Dublin’s scoring with a 4-0 win at 215.

Plymouth Whitemarsh (9-6) picked up five wins, all by points. Ashton Wittenberg (133) won, 13-0, Mohammed Charabi (145) won, 7-3, Ty Borkowski (152) won, 6-0, Justin Bainbridge (172) won, 9-0 and Donald Kunf (289) won, 7-2.

“I think we just ran into a better team,” PW coach Dan Madonna said. “Upper Dublin is pretty physical and tough and I don’t think our younger guys were ready for that. We would win matches and they would get pins, which ends up hurting us in the long run.

“Ashton and (Bainbridge) have been solid wrestlers since they’ve been here. Ty’s really come along this past year, he’s really stepping up. It shows – I think he lost to that kid as a freshman and he ended up nearly majoring him tonight.”