The highlights were plentiful for the Robbinsville High wrestling team but, according to David Kanner, not unexpected.
“We did nothing short of what I expected,” the junior co-captain said. “We work extremely hard in the room and have a fantastic set of guys as well as three incredible coaches. They push us everyday to our limit physically and mentally.
“I am very appreciative of the program we have. Our accomplishments this year are just a testament to the future of our program. I had a good feeling the whole season seeing how hard everyone pushed themselves and seeing some of these solid wrestlers build their arsenals and push themselves to their limits.”
That hard work resulted in some outstanding solo results as well as group accomplishments.
“We’ve had a lot of seasons previously where we’ve had a lot of individual success; a lot of guys competing through districts, regions or states,” coach Sean Flynn said. “But this year we had a complete balance where we had team success and individual success as well.”
Individually, the Ravens had six Mercer County Tournament champions, including sophomore Anthony Viscido (113 pounds), sophomore Giacomo Bottoni (120), Kanner (126), junior Cole Cifrodelli (144), senior Nick Migliaccio (165) and sophomore Richard Esterly (190). Robbinsville had nine Top 3 finishes as junior Dylan Cifrodelli (138) took second and freshman Alex Messinger (150) and senior Michael Manieri (132) were third.
Five of the MCT champs advanced to the Region 6 tournament, as Viscido, Kanner and Cole Cifrodelli took second in District 22, while Migliaccio and Esterly were third.
Viscido went one better, finishing fourth in the regionals and making it to the state championships in Atlantic City.
As a team, Robbinsville went 20-3 overall and 13-0 against Colonial Valley Conference foes in the regular season. Included in that was a thrilling 35-34 win over Hopewell Valley.
The Ravens reached the finals of the NJSIAA Group 3 Central Tournament by knocking off Lawrence and Brick before losing to South Plainfield. And they accomplished the unthinkable by snapping Hopewell Valley’s streak of winning the MCT title for 10 straight years. The Ravens got points in 12 of the 13 weight classes and finished 26 points ahead of the Bulldogs.
“That was definitely a cool accomplishment but given the hard work and camaraderie our team exhibited, anything less than a championship would have been a failure in our minds,” Kanner said. “It was great to experience to see some of the underclassmen step up, such as Anthony Viscido, Richard Esterly and Giacomo Bottoni. It was also cool to see our senior (co-captain), Nick Migs getting it done considering it was his final year with us. The environment our wrestling program fosters is one of support for our fellow wrestlers.”
In looking at his wrestlers who won MCT gold, Flynn felt the expectations were high for them since they have had past success at either the youth and club levels, or in high school. The Cifrodellis were both third in the county as freshmen, Kanner wrestles year round and Viscido and Bottoni both had strong freshman campaigns during last year’s Covid-abbreviated season.
All that being said, the coaching staff was not quite as confident as Kanner about team success entering the season; only because some key grapplers had limited high school experience.
“We knew that a couple of our young guys had success last year but it was such a small sample size, it was hard to tell,” Flynn said. “Guys like Viscido, Bottoni, Kanner and Esterly were all first-year starters last year whether they were freshmen or sophomores. They all had great records and did a really good job but we wrestled 10 matches in the CVC, it was hard to tell where they stood really without a full season.
“Obviously, we were positively surprised by the way they responded and the way they excelled for a full season. Our expectations grew for them as the season went along.”
While most of the success came in the lower to middle weights, several upper weight wrestlers came through in a big way.
“One of the areas that we struggled with the last few years is filling weight classes, getting something out of those guys up top,” Flynn said. “Having a guy like Nick Migliaccio, who has a lot of experience and a lot of success, was big. He stepped up, took it to the next level and had a really great season overall. He had a lot of big wins for us.
“Richard Esterly only wrestled 10 matches as a freshman. He really stepped in and did a great job. He wrestled really good kids at the region tournament and came close to making it to states.”
As one of the captains, it was Kanner’s job to lead a young team that will lose just three seniors. He did his job, but admitted he had help from his fellow captain Migliori and others.
“The team was very easy to lead considering we had a solid group of upperclassmen as role models such as Cole Cifrodelli, Dylan Cifrodeli, Michael Manieri, Nick Migs and myself,” he said. “We are a very close-knit team, which has been together since our days in RWA (Robbinsville Wrestling Association). We have a ton of socially diverse personalities which is cool to experience and creates an environment for mentorship and friendship.”
One of the season’s biggest stories was Viscido making it to Atlantic City and going 33-7. The sophomore went 10-0 in last year’s abbreviated season. Two of his losses this year were close ones to a state place-winner and state qualifier.
“Obviously he had a great year, he had some good wins throughout the year and some quality losses,” Flynn said. “He was right in there with really good kids. So we had high expectations. He didn’t win any matches (in AC) but it’s a good experience for him to be down there as a sophomore, get a sense of what it’s like; to get the routine, the schedule, a sense of what it’s like to be on the mat on that big stage for moving forward.”
And moving forward is something that the Ravens cannot wait to do with so much young talent coming back. Migliaccio, Manieri and Tom Jennings are the lone graduates.
“I’m super excited for next season,” Kanner said. “We are coming back with a lofty goal of improving on what we began this year and I believe we can do even better as a team than the previous season. We are also aiming to achieve some of the individual goals we fell short of this year.
“I promise one thing – we will be back and better than ever next year. We are looking forward to competing again as a team and as individuals!”
Coaches and members of the Robbinsville High School wrestling team celebrate after winning the Mercer County Championship.,
