Wrestlers Suffer Losses in Tri-Meet

There wasn’t much time for the Scotch Plains-Fanwood High wrestling team to savor Friday night’s convincing win against Union.

The Raiders had to get up very early Saturday morning to take on two solid teams in Piscataway and Cranford in a triangular meet at Piscataway.

The Raiders simply didn’t have the depth or experience needed to pull off an upset of either team, losing to Piscataway 51-21 before falling to Cranford 61-9.

“They were two good teams," said Raiders’ coach John Scholz. “With Piscataway we felt we were right in there. We actually took the lead, which was nice. Our middle weights are doing a great job and we’re competitive with teams there. But with Piscataway from (152) 52 on up every kid was a stud. Every kid had muscle on muscle. That’s the advantage. That’s what I told our kids. Their strength made the match right there. But our kids battled out there."

Scotch Plains-Fanwood held a 21-12 lead on Piscataway in the first match of the morning. The Raiders got wins from senior 125-pounder Tristan Bundy, sophomore 130-pounder Sean Cannon – who had a pin along with senior 135-pounder and sophomore 140-pounder Mike Steinfeld. But Piscataway won the last eight bouts.

“Put away the score, I’m very happy with where the team is," Scholz said. “We have a handful of experienced kids and we have a handful of few kids who are learning the program, learning how to wrestle and getting better every time."

Scholz smiled when talking about Bundy, who has lost just one bout this year and is now 18 away from reaching 100 wins. Bundy won both of his bouts Saturday, beating Piscataway’s Mike Mora 8-7 and Cranford’s Brian Buentempo 3-2.

Scholz said he suggested to Bundy that he wrestle a practice bout before his two morning bouts to help with his notorious slow starts.

“We wrestled within 12 hours, it’s very hard and morning wrestling is the worst, nobody ever really likes wrestling in the morning," Bundy said. “Our average match is 6 and 7 p.m, prime time, so we’re warm, we've been in school, we have been active. Here you’re waking up at 6 a.m. and wrestling three hours later."

Cranford, which lost to Piscataway, proved to be tougher. The Raiders won just three bouts – Bundy, senior 145-pounder Josh Foote and freshman 103-pounder Lucas Cimafonte earned the wins. Scotch Plains-Fanwood dropped to 2-6 on the season.

The Raiders beat Union 44-13 as Danny Cardoza (112 pounds), Cannon (130) and Juwan Gaines (135) recorded falls. Steinfeld had a technical fall win.