Announcement
CRUSADERS WIN THIRD CONSECUTIVE COUNTY TITLE
By Star-Ledger
on January 11, 2014 9:59 p.m.
By Connor Hughes/For The Star-Ledger
Michael Johnson had worked too hard for it to end like this.
Lying on his back surrounded by trainers and coaches, and with the capacity crowd at Hillsborough High for the Somerset County Tournament on its feet, Johnson slowly worked himself to his feet.
Every minute spent rehabbing his torn ACL suffered playing football earlier in the year, every second spent in physical therapy flashed before the Bound Brook heavyweight’s eyes.
“It’s not over yet,” he said as he limped back onto the mat to finish his semifinal-round bout. “Not yet.”
When his match resumed, Johnson took a shot and pinned Jaleen Harrington to advance to the 285-pound final. There, he defeated Anthony Carbajal of Watchung Hills, 7-3, to earn a county championship.
“It feels good to be back,” Johnson said.
In September, in the first football game of his senior year, Johnson found himself carrying the ball – and several defenders in the process. As the run came to an end, one of his offensive lineman grabbed Johnson and attempted to pull him forward to gain a few extra yards. The additional surge ruptured Johnson’s ACL.
“My knee just popped,” Johnson said.
The ensuing months were filled with a grueling rehabilitation process, and 95 days after surgery, he headed to physical therapy.
“I had 85 sessions,” Johnson said. “I’d go six days a week and it was all to get ready for this. This tournament.
“My senior season in football was taken away from me. During rehab I just kept telling myself the same wasn’t going to happen for wrestling.”
Which is why, when Johnson was taken down in the semifinals, a little stinger wasn’t going to slow him down.
“It was painful, very painful. My knee kept popping,” Johnson said. “But at the end of the day I’m in it to win it and there was nothing that was going to stop me. I’m a competitor, that’s how I live life.
“All that pain did was show me it’s going to be a long season, but it’s one that I’m going to fight it out in.”
Johnson’s title was one of eight first-place finishes for Bound Brook as it won its third straight overall team title with 258 points. Watchung Hills was a distant second with 159.5.
Nicholas Limenza (106 pounds), Stephan Glasgow (120), Craig De La Cruz (126), Nicholas Accetta (138), Andrew Gombas (152), Josh Ugalde (160) and Ronaldo Picado (220) also won for Bound Brook.
“This team just drives each other,” Johnson said. “It makes everything so much easier when you compete with a bunch of people behind you. You have great teammates to work with, which lets us push each other to be our best.”
Four the fourth year in a row, Watchung Hills senior Mike Magaldo (132) finished first, becoming just the eighth wrestler in the history of the Somerset County Tournament to accomplish such a feat. Teammate Alex Murray finished first in the 145-pound class.
Other winners included Somerville’s Evan Drill (113), Franklin’s Mike Fagg-Daves (170), Ridge’s Cort Hotz (182) and Montgomery’s Anthony Cassar (195).
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