Highland Senior Wrestler Taken Out on Stretcher in Triton Match

RUNNEMEDE — A wrestling match between local rivals Highland and Triton high schools took place Friday, but the score was of little relevance by night’s end.

Highland senior and 2010 state qualifier Jake Siegfried suffered an apparent head injury when he was illegally suplexed and landed on his head and back, causing him to briefly become incoherent. Siegfried remained down on the mat in excess of 15 minutes before being carted off and taken to the local hospital for tests.

“Jake came down pretty hard on his back and from the trainer's standpoint he was incoherent for about 20 seconds which led the trainer to believe there was a possible concussion,” Highland assistant coach Rob Hoelke said. “Everything else seems to be fine as far as his spine. After 20 seconds he started to come around.”

Hoelke, who took over when head coach DJ Gore accompanied Siegfried to the hospital along with the senior’s father, said Siegfried would undergo precautionary X-rays and tests.

The incident riled up fans and wrestlers alike, but cooler heads prevailed through most of the match as the Tartans finished with a 51-24 nonconference victory.

After the match Triton head coach Dominic Koehl expressed sympathy for Siegfried and said there was no room for such behavior from his wrestlers.

“We have nothing but respect for Mr. Siegfried and his son Jake,” Koehl said. “I know how hard that kid has worked the past two years. I would never, ever coach a kid to do anything like that, nor would I want to see him get hurt like that. We don’t condone that. That wrestler will be dealt with because it’s not what I’m about, how I’ve been raised or what I have tried to preach to these kids. It was really hard to see and I just hope he’s fine and he can just move forward and have a great successful senior year.”

Seeing their leader taken out of the gym on a stretcher hit the rest of the Tartans hard.

“It’s the last thing you want to see in a match, seeing one of your best kids go down like that,” said Doug Picard, who won his match by 5-4 decision at 145 pounds. “Jake’s our leader and he’s one of our best wrestlers. I hope he’s OK because you never want to see anything bad happen to him a week from districts.

“It crushed the team, but we came through with the win so this is for Jake.”

Before the wrestling resumed each coach gathered with his respective team to refocus the athletes.

“Being sister schools, some of our wrestlers know their wrestlers,” Hoelke said. “It’s a rivalry and I didn’t want our wrestlers to do any type of retaliation in any way, shape or form, so I told them to go out there and wrestle hard for Jake.”

As for the wrestling, the Tartans left little doubt which team would leave victorious by building a 30-12 lead. Nick Fillipo (119) and Ryan Wade (130) recorded pins, while Dylan Thesing (112), Bill Davis (130) and Anthony Whittick (140) won by forfeit. At 145, Pickard recorded the closest win of the day, a 5-4 decision over Ed Spaventa. The decisive point came when Spaventa was penalized for an illegal takedown. Pickard re-injured his ribs on the move but was able to gut out the final 26 seconds of the match without being scored on.

“Ed’s a good wrestler and it just came down to who wanted it more,” said Pickard, who improved to 19-6. “I guess it was me this time.”

Aaron Bale had a pin at heavyweight, while Ricky Sheldon won by forfeit to close the scoring for the Tartans.

Triton’s most impressive win came in the opener at 103 where Chris Bucceroni scored a pin against Bill Henry in 1:34. Henry started the match with a takedown, but two seconds later, Bucceroni scored a reversal and was able to get Henry on his back for the pin.

“That was a great win for Chris because he has been working hard and that’s a district win,” Koehl said.

Also winning for Triton was Mike Whelan (forfeit, 125), Caesar Maldonado (5-3 decision, 171), Nick Smith (pin, 189) and Darius Garvey (4-1 decision, 2:15).

Nonconference

Highland 51, Triton 24

103: Chris Bucceroni (T) pin Bill Henry, 1:34; 112: Dylan Thesing (H) won by forfeit; 119: Nick Fillippo (H) pin. Kevin Kelly, 3:52; 125: Mike Whelan (T) won by forfeit; 130: Bill Davis (H) won by forfeit; 135: Ryan Wade (H) pin Caesar Dash, 1:31; 140: Anthony Whit tick (H) won by forfeit; 145: Doug Pickard (H) def. Ed Spaventa, 5-4; 152: Jake Siegfried (H) won by injury; 160: Ricky Sheldon (H) won by forfeit; 171: Caesar Maldonado (T) def. Joe Tarricone, 5-3; 189: Nick Smith (T) pin Nick Lovello, 4:31; 215: Darius Garvey (T) def. Martell Harrison, 4-1; 285: Aaron Bale (H) pin Mariusz Ogrodnik, 2:23.