Blair Wrestling

2/28/10 - Wrestlers Win 30th Prep Title
Headmaster Presents Mendoza Award

It was no surprise that Blair’s wrestling team garnered its 30th National Prep Wrestling Championship title over the weekend. At the conclusion of the event, Headmaster Chan Hardwick was pleased and honored to present the inaugural National Prep “Major Ray Mendoza Award” to Wyoming Seminary's Donald McNeil. Blair senior Chris Villalonga was named Outstanding Wrestler. At the end of 2009, two major tournaments – the Ironman in Ohio and the Beast of the East in Delaware (both of which Blair won) – paid the first of such tributes to the late Major Ray Mendoza ’87 with presentations of this new award.

The Major Ray Mendoza Award is bestowed on the wrestler who earns the most team points (for his team) at the respective competition. Ray, a talented wrestler while at Blair, was killed in action in Iraq four years ago. Congressman Jim Jordan made the presentation in Ohio; Jim was a two-time NCAA champ and coached Ray at Ohio State. The inaugural Major Ray Mendoza Award was won by Nick Sulzer of St. Edward, the 2009 Ironman 160 lb. champion.

Ray took second at Preps in 1987 and matriculated to Ohio State, where he also wrestled and was the 1991 USA University Freestyle champion. He lettered for the Buckeyes in 1992 and 1993 and was a ’93 Big Ten runner-up at heavyweight. At Blair, Ray was also the captain of the varsity football team, and former Coach Hazen described him as an “outstanding leader.”

Past parent David Ritterpusch, whose son Kurt ’87 is serving in the army and roomed with Ray at Blair, conceived these new awards and is writing a book about Blair’s storied wrestling team; proceeds of the sales will benefit Blair.

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2/21 - Blair Wrestling victory in the NJISAA State Tournaments
Taking home the Team Champion honors, Blair wrestlers took to the mats on Saturday afternoon at the Blair Field House, hosting the NJISAA State Meet. Blair saw 12 wrestlers in the finals, with eleven earning the title of Prep State Champ. Brad Bishop, Brooks Black, Mike Evans, Mark Grey, Max Hovolbek, Austin Ornsbee, Russell Parsons, Todd Preston, Jesse Shanaman, Evan Silver, and Chris Villalonga each won at their respective weight class. Jack Wedholm finished second, and Marino Orlandi earned third place and Dillon Hoffman earned a fourth. Chris Villalonga was named the Tournament Outstanding Wrestler. Blair will be back at it on Friday and Saturday at the Prep National Tournament to be held at Lehigh’s Stabler Arena.

2/17 - Blair JV Invitational
This past Wednesday afternoon, Blair hosted a JV invitational. Joining Blair’s JV wrestlers were wrestlers from Peddie, Lawrenceville and St. Benedict’s.

Holt Johnson (103) and first-year wrestler Eugene Park (135) led the Bucs on the day. Both wrestlers did a great job of going after their opponents and won all three matches by fall. This meet was the second in a row where Johnson won all of his matches, and Park deserves credit for being our most improved JV wrestler. Just one month ago, he lost both of his matches at a JV invitational at Lawrenceville, so he has come a long way in the last month.

Harrison Gardner (125) also went undefeated for the Bucs. After getting off to a slow start and beating Don-Tai Garner of St. Benedict’s in overtime, Gardner pinned his next two opponents before heading into a rematch with Garner. Gardner proved that the first match was no fluke, and he dominated the final match and beat Garner 8-2.

James Park (145) went 1-2 on the day, pinning one opponent in the first period, losing by a fall, and losing 6-2.

First-year wrestlers, John Welch (130) and Ian Mindham (130) also competed. Mindham won two matches and lost one, all in exciting fashion. Both opponents he beat, he put in a banana split. He pinned one opponent and beat the other by a technical fall. Welch, after less than a month of practice, showed great potential on the day. He pinned one opponent and held the lead for most of another match before losing by fall . He also lost a barnburner of a match by the score 10-8.

Congratulations to all the JV wrestlers for a job well done.

Posted 2/20/09

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