The Lawrence High wrestling record books got a pretty good workout this winter.
It was a historic season in a lot of ways.
Start with senior Steven Ham, who carried an undefeated record into the Region 6 finals and qualified for the state tournament a second straight season.
Although he only won one match in states, Ham set school records for wins in a season (44) and career (131), takedowns in a season and career and technical falls in a career. He led the state with 21 t-falls this season and coach Chris Lynne and his staff feel Ham is one of the program’s top-five wrestlers of all time.
On the girls side, junior Tanvi Madisetti went 34-7, reached states for the second straight year and became the first LHS female wrestler to climb the podium at Atlantic City by taking an eighth-place medal. Madisetti and senior teammate Marina Velazco became the first Cardinal district champions, as this was the first year for girls districts.
The boys were 20-12 in dual meets while the girls finished 19-4.
At the college level, former Cardinal Mohamed Abdelatty, now wrestling for Ursinus, took eighth in the NCAA Division III nationals to gain All-American status. He is the first wrestler Lynne had in his 40-year career that went on to be a college All-American.
As for Lynne, he became the first Mercer County coach to ever reach 400 victories, which he achieved in December.
For good measure, sophomore Stella Kramer was one win away from placing in girls states, and senior Zane Spencer qualified for boys states.
“It was a damn good year,” Lynne said. “A lot of great stuff.”
Ham was the talk of Mercer as he bulldozed his way to titles in the Wendy Pandy-Leh Invitational, the Colonial Valley Conference Tournament and the District 21 Tournament at 132 pounds. He carried a 42-0 record into the Region 6 final before falling, and then went 1-2 in states.
“I think cutting the weight in the end started to affect him,” Lynne said. “He was cutting too much weight. It starts to wear you down. Gaining weight, losing weight, especially when these tournaments are in two or three days and you’re holding your weight and they only give you a pound each day.”
Lynne acknowledged that all wrestlers have to do that and it wasn’t an excuse, but he felt it just wore his guy down. Ham was also not using it as an excuse. He felt it may have affected his eating habits, but not his performance.
“In general I wrestled to the best of my ability,” he said. “The weight cutting only did so much. It didn’t affect my game that much. I just feel there’s still stuff I can improve on.
“To put it in perspective, I gave it my best shot. I just wanted to leave everything on the table. This was my last year; I wanted to show the world what I could do. With states, I didn’t get the result I wanted but the rest of the season I did get what I wanted. I put a lot of time in; I wanted to break all the records and cement myself in history.”
He put more than enough time in.
“The amount of work he did to make himself better was incredible,” Lynne said. “When he wasn’t at practice with us he was training at a club in North Jersey. He did that year round. He was on a mission, unfortunately he fell a little short of his mission but sometimes things happen.”
Neither coach or wrestler dwelled on Ham being undefeated for most of the year, although Ham did say once he finally thought about it “I was like ‘Wow I haven’t been beaten yet.’
“Districts were tough. (CBA’s Teag Saito, who Ham beat in the finals) was tough. With CBA moving to our district I didn’t have an easy ride like last year. But I proved I could still win in a harder district this year.”
He proved more than that. As a Cardinal elder statesman, Ham took on a serious leadership role. Lynne noted he has had state qualifiers that he never named captains and freshman he named captains, but Ham was a combination of good wrestler and good leader.
“He’ll make a great coach someday,” Lynne said. “He cared about his teammates; he would stop and correct someone if they were doing something wrong. He wanted to be the person showing them. He cared about the team. You can’t say that about all the kids.”
Ham, who is looking into wrestling in college next year, wants all the kids to have his habits.
“I want everybody to aspire to be like me and I want everyone to be better than me in my room,” he said. “I just want people to enjoy the sport like I do. Wrestling is more than a sport to me. It’s a life lesson. You could take all the lessons in wrestling and convert it to real life. I just want everybody to be a better version of themselves.”
One of the teammates he aided was Madisetti, who went 34-7 at 185, won the CVCT and District 8 titles and took third in Region 3.
“I’ve been wrestling with Tanvi since middle school and I knew she was going to be great,” Ham said. “She’s super strong, she gave me a tough time. Any time she lost I always said ‘I believe in you.’ You have to lose to win, that’s just how the world works in general.
“People saw me being undefeated and thought it was just natural talent. Last year in the off-season I lost so much. I got beat really bad at Fargo (a high-level North Dakota tournament). You’re just putting in the training. I told that to Tanvi. It’s tough to lose but you can’t win all your bouts.”
Madisetti appreciated the advice.
“He helped constantly,” she said. “He would always give the best support any way you needed it. Mental support, emotional support, he would give you that motivation booster. If he didn’t know something he would find out, or he would just teach you on the spot. He was an amazing captain.”
And she is becoming an amazing wrestler. After losing her state opener, Madisetti battled back to win two straight. The second was in the “blood round” which guarantees that all winners will place. After that she lost two straight but it was enough for eighth place. She was one of just three Mercer County wrestlers to medal in states along with two Steinert girls.
Madisetti was stimulated to wrestle after watching the 2016 movie Dangal, about two Indian girls who wrestled their way to the world competition.
“It was a really inspiring movie,” she said. “I started in seventh grade and had to wrestle guys, that was much harder because of that biological disadvantage. But now girls wrestling has grown so much. We had districts for the first time this year. It’s great to be the first (state place-winner) and I get to pave the way. This sport is so important to me. It’s so wonderful I got to do this.”
Madisetti went to the Lawrenceville School as a freshman and qualified for the prep nationals. Wishing to return to her lifelong friends she transferred to Lawrence and reached the blood round of states last year before losing. She also finished third in the nation in archery, a sport she is now just doing as a hobby.
“She’s a very well-rounded athlete,” Lynne said, adding with a laugh, “She’s strong, I know because she punches me in the head all the time. She calls it a cross face; I call it punching me in the head.
“She’s a very methodical, very smart wrestler. Very analytical. She knows what the opponent is trying to do to her and she counters that. She’s aggressive when necessary.”
After fighting nerves at states last year, Madisetti felt more comfortable having Kramer there with her. The sophomore took second in districts and fourth in regions to advance. She reached the blood round at states before losing.
In his last go-around in high school, Spencer took second in districts and third in regions to reach his goal of getting to states.
As for Abdelatty, the Ursinus junior finished the season 29-5 and went 2-3 in the nationals to gain All-America status.
Ursinus Director of Wrestling Joe Jamison said on the Ursinus website, “Mo was awesome; he rose to the occasion and achieved his goal. Now Mo has his sights set on a national title, and he knows what he needs to do to get there.”
Lynne was following his former wrestler’s progress during the states.
“I was texting him back and forth the whole weekend,” he said. “I had the time. You get long droughts at these tournaments and sit around for three hours.”
That idle time also gave him the chance to update his program’s record book. It definitely needed some work.
LHS state qualifier Steven Ham (left), assistant coach Jeff Verga, state placewinner Tanvi Mansetti, head coach Chris Lynne, state qualifier Zane Spencer and region qualifier James Lyons.,
