Belleville senior Rocco Negron, right, controls an opponent at the Region 3 tournament at West Orange High School. Negron took third place in the 114-pound weight class.
BELLEVILLE, NJ –Belleville High School seniors Jakob Ferrer and Rocco Negron earned berths for the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association’s state boys wrestling tournament in Atlantic City.
Ferrer took second place in the 113-pound weight class and Negron took third place in the 144-pound class at the NJSIAA’s Region 3 tournament at West Orange High School on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 23-24.
Ferrer reached the region final, but lost by a 15-0 technical fall to Nathan Braun of Bergen Catholic to finish in second place.
Negron, who was named the District 10 tournament’s Most Outstanding Wrestler at Nutley High School on Saturday, Feb. 17, won by a 7-2 decision over Anthony L. Moreno of St. Mary of Rutherford in the third-fourth place consolation bout. Negron lost in the semifinals to Reid Clausi of West Essex by a 5-3 decision, but regrouped to pin Charles Krajewski of Secaucus in the wrestleback consolation semifinals to earn a berth in the state tournament. The winners in the consolation semifinals go to the third-fourth place bouts, thus earning state tournament berths, as the top-four finishers in each weight class from the eight region tournaments move on to state tournament, which will be Thursday to Saturday, Feb. 29-March 2, at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.
Negron went 3-1 in the region tournament.
The Belleville Buccaneers had other competitors in the region tournament.
Leo Tiankee, a senior, finished in fifth place in the 120-pound weight class with an 11-4 decision over Dominic Holler of Caldwell in the fifth-sixth place consolation. Tiankee went 3-2 in the region tournament.
Lorenzo Tiankee, a freshman, competed in the 126-pound class, losing in the first round.
The region tournament consisted of the top-three finishers in each weight class from the districts 9-12 tournaments.
Photos Courtesy of Belleville High School Athletics
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