Junior Wrestlers place well in opening tourneys

The West Milford Junior Wrestling program officially kicked off its program-wide season the weekend of Jan. 4-5.

It was a full weekend of wrestling, with the team participating in away matches against Westwood and Oakland on Saturday, and Novice and Open tournaments on Sunday.

The team split up for the Sunday tournaments, sending its newer and younger participants to the Butler Bulldog Novice Tournament; older novice wrestlers and more seasoned wrestlers competed in the Mt. Olive Jr. Marauders Tournament.

The team saw great success in both tournaments.

In Butler, five WMJW wrestlers took first place, eight took second and six wrestlers took third place in their respective brackets.

In Mt. Olive Novice, Marco Yodice scored a first place finish and three new WMJW wrestlers picked up third and fourth place in their brackets (Jesse Arrujo, DJ Sperry, and Ben Otto).

WMJW also had a great showing in the Mt. Olive Open Division, with 15 wrestlers scoring top four placements in their brackets.

Head Coach Dustin McConnell couldn’t be prouder of the team.

“What a great weekend of wrestling Saturday and Sunday,” McConnell said. “I’m so proud of all of our wrestlers.”

McConnell also said he thanked the coaches and all of the parents in the program for the support they lend to the team.