Westfield’s Group 5 sectional quarterfinals were a lot louder than one would expect. That is because in one gym, four teams were battling for two spots in the semifinals. Unlike a traditional sectional tournament, wrestling teams do not have a two-day break in between meets; they have one hour.
The Blue Devils needed to beat Elizabeth, a strong, athletic team, for a chance to battle Bridgewater who destroyed East Side in their first meet. Westfield needed to show strength. The Blue Devils started their meet on the right track, taking down Elizabeth quickly and painlessly with a final score of 48-27. However, exhausted after triumphant quarterfinals, the Blue Devils fell spectacularly to Bridgewater, 66-3.
The only redeeming moment of Westfield’s match against Bridgewater came from sophomore Jake Zemsky. Zemsky wrestles in the 190-lb weight class, but suffering a shoulder injury early in the regular season, he needed to maintain his strength for six minutes knowing Bridgwater had not had a single loss in their second bout of the day. There was not anything flashy about his performance, but it was a six-minute show of grit and toughness escaping multiple pin attempts and takedowns to secure Westfield’s first and only win against Bridgewater, 4-2. Though Zemsky was able to put points on the board for Westfield, he was far from pleased with his performance and felt as though the unreachable lead Bridgewater had affected his mentality going on to the mat. “Well, personally, I just went out there and tried to compete, but I don’t think I succeeded in the way I wanted to. I wanted to keep scoring, but I think I let it get into my head that we were down by a lot.”
The first meet, however, told a completely different story. From when the first wrestler of the night, freshman Jake Conti, stepped onto the mat, every single Westfield wrestler had an intensity stemming from sectional nerves. Westfield started out with five wins in a row, one of them being a forfeit to senior female wrestler Lina Wright, giving her the first varsity win for a female wrestler in Westfield history.
Westfield had a total of four pins in the first round and a big win by junior Dylan Sontz in the 138-lb weight class. Even after his tough win, Sontz wanted to move on to the next and stay level-headed going into semifinals. “This is a very exciting meet as this will send us to sectional finals. I think a lot of us are excited…We are going to push ourselves a lot harder every match and hopefully beat Bridgewater again and make our way back to the sectional final.”
Head coach Glenn Kurz felt the same way about his team: to keep up the intensity, but also taking into account how the team only had a half hour in between meets, and it was important that each wrestler focused and realized what they needed to improve in their next match. “We have to focus on bonus points. We did a good job getting bonus points against Elizabth, but we did not do a good job minimizing bonus points against Bridgewater which is something we have to work on.”
Unfortunately, these improvements did not see the mat. The more settled Westfield became, the more they broke down. After a quick rest for Westfield, with stretches and walkthroughs, they cleared the mat for Bridgewater’s warmup. Bridgewater dominated their opponent East Side and their first match of the day, proving to be a worthy opponent of the motivated Blue Devils.
But, when Bridgewater came in with a singular spotlight on the map and “Crazy Train” by Ozzy Osbourne began crackling over the speakers, the fans exploded as the wrestlers started sprinting around the mat riling each other up as Westfield stood on their bench in awe.
It turns out the intimidation strategy worked for Bridgewater because within five minutes, Westfield had three losses, two of them being pins and one of them being by points. None of them were expected. During the first meet, the Blue Devils went on a win-streak to start proving how vital their lightweight wrestlers are to the roster. These losses early showed Bridgewater’s biggest weapons outmatched the Blue Devils, and Westfield would need to dominate every other match for a chance to continue to the sectional finals.
Even with a harrowing physical effort, this proved to be impossible as back-to-back-to-back losses for Westfield continued for everyone but Zemsky, most of them by pin and most of them early in the match. Westfield could not even show how physically tough they were or if their stamina could withhold the challenge because many of their matches were lost before the second round even had a chance to start.
With such a devastating loss, Kurz was honest on what needs to be fixed if the Blue Devils have a chance at districts to continue their season. “I think toughness is kind of a problem…We were a little bit short on that. Keeping composure in touch matches is something we have to work on.” Regardless of how big the loss, each Blue Devil carries with them a sense of pride, making sure to shake hands with each and every Bridgewater wrestler and taking whatever lessons they learned from their match on to the next.
The Blue Devils will look for a huge pivot in performance at the District 16 tournament, hoping to come away with a trophy.
