Jan. 31, MCT Wrestling Nottingham's Devion Stokes battles West Windsor-South's Vinny Porreca in the 220-pound finals of today's Mercer County Tournament (Photo by Dennis Symons Jr./purchase photos at www.dennissymons.com). Stokes reaches finals in helping Swamprats to a third-place finish By Ken Weingartner Fish4scores.com Jan. 31: Devion Stokes was surprised by his performance in the Mercer County wrestling tournament. His coach, Jason “The Rock” Marasco, was not. Stokes, a Nottingham High junior, was seeded sixth at 220 pounds in the MCT, but advanced to the championship bout before losing today to undefeated Vinny Porreca of West Windsor-Plainsboro South. It was Stokes’ first appearance in the county tourney, in only his second season of wrestling. “He’s surprised, but I’ve known that kid has got it inside of him,” Marasco said. “He doesn’t know it yet, but he’s finding out. This was a big stage for him. And he did good until he just made a rookie mistake.” Stokes pinned his first two opponents in the tourney, including third-seeded Austin Soriano of Hightstown in 26 seconds in the quarterfinals. He beat No. 2 seed Will Ortman of Hopewell Valley, 8-6, in the semis before getting pinned Porreca in the title match. Porreca is 21-0 this season and last season finished third in the MCT and second in District 20. “I really didn’t think I was going to make it this far,” Stokes said. “My coach helped me a lot with all the preparation and got me ready to go. This will give me a lot of confidence. “I wasn’t really expecting (to reach the final), but I really wanted to win it. I tried to do it for my team and my coaches.” Stokes started wrestling because he thought it was interesting. “So I tried it out and I liked it,” he said. “I enjoy how only a certain amount of people can make it far. It’s just you out there, you don’t have to count on anyone else. You win or lose on your own.” Stokes led a strong showing from Nottingham, which finished third in the team standings, just six points behind runner-up Robbinsville. Hopewell Valley won the tourney for the fifth consecutive year. The Swamprats had nine wrestlers finish among the top five in their respective weight classes. Steinert, which was led by third-place finishes from Jon Bernstein and Schnieder Simon, finished 12th and Hamilton West was 14th. Na’eem Shuman led the Hornets with a fifth-place finish. NOTTINGHAM The Swamprats saw Greg Daloisio (106), Kem Montina (182) and Richie Vincent (285) earn third-place finishes while Lucas Quattro (113), Trott Montina (160) and Zach Grehan (170) finished fourth and Levens Jean-Gilles and Kervens Basile were fifth. Daloisio lost his preliminary bout, 4-3, but won five times in the consolation bracket to finish third. Vincent lost to eventual champion Stefanos Kem Montina takes control in his third-place consolation bout against Princeton's Victor Karpontinis of Notre Dame in Bell (Photo by Ken Weingartner). the heavyweight quarterfinals, but won his next four bouts all by pins – in 2:31 or less. Kem Montina also lost to an eventual champ, Allentown’s Zach Turner. “It was a great tournament,” Marasco said. “The kids scrapped and grinded out matches. Greg Daloisio got better every match. And he loves it. Vincent has been in and out of the varsity lineup, sharing time with Stokes, so for him to come in and fight hard – he even fought off his back – and take third is awesome. It’s great stuff. We just got great efforts all around. “And the guys that didn’t medal, they gave it all they had. I can’t ask for any more than a hundred percent. They tried as hard as they could and I know it. There’s nothing to be ashamed about. I’m really impressed with their effort. I’m really proud.” Marasco expects his wrestlers to learn from their MCT performances and make adjustments for the district tournament, which is in three weeks. “When you lose in a tournament it’s a tough way to learn, but it’s a good indicator where you’re at,” Marasco said. “It’s a gauge for how much improvement is needed for the postseason. “But it’s an eye-opener. If they just get on board, we can ride this ship and continue to impress people. I think we could have multiple guys make it through [districts] to the region. To come out here and show the county – top three with two seniors – I’m tickled. It’s a really bright future for this team.” STEINERT The Spartans were without 2014 MCT champion Brandon Cray because of illness and entered wrestlers in a total of only nine weight classes. Bernstein finished third at 126 and Simon was third at 152. Bernstein’s loss was 32 to Princeton’s James Verbeyst, who finished second in the tourney, and Simon’s setback came to eventual champion Jordan Rugo of Allentown. Also for the Spartans, Sean Gallway finished fourth at 285 and Alex Rubio was fifth at 160. “The guys that we entered all wrestled tough,” Spartans coach Adam “The Postmaster General” Jankos Steinert's Schnieder Simon works on Lawrenceville's Nick Shupin en route to victory in said. “We had four guys grab the third-place consolation bout (Photo by Ken Weingartner). a medal, so we’re happy about that. For entering nine guys in the tournament, I don’t think it was too bad.” Bernstein won two of his first five matches this season, but since then has captured 14 of 16. “I think Jon Bernstein is coming on strong,” Jankos said. “He had a little difficulty at the beginning of the season and one day he just opened his eyes. We gave him a little pep talk, and he’s been wrestling tough ever since. He’s coming on strong right now.” Cray, who placed fourth in last year’s state tourney, is expected to return to the Spartans’ lineup soon. “He should be back next week,” Jankos said. “At this time of year you don’t want to let [an illness] linger. You want to knock it out of his system as quickly as possible and take the proper time to rest.” HAMILTON The Hornets saw Shuman lose his preliminary match at 220 by a point, but the junior battled back to win four of his next five bouts to finish fifth. In addition, Va’Zay Child (170), JP Cruz (182) and Burnell Barnes (285) all finished sixth. “I’m very impressed,” West coach Matt Merrigan said. “We have a young team and a lot of guys really did well in the wrestlebacks, which is great. “Our goal is to finish above our seeds, and for the most part most of our kids accomplished that. Our two captains, JP Cruz and Va’Zay Child both came in sixth. Shuman, this is his first year in the program with me, and he placed fifth and really did an excellent job. Barnes, heavyweight is difficult and he’s been battling an injury, but he’s going out there and giving all he can. “This seems like a stepping stone for us to get ready for districts. I’m really very pleased with our performance.”