Columbia senior Derek Mingmongkol, freshman Austin Katz, sophomore Reid Ordower and sophomore Jared Van Allen pose while wearing the medals they won at the Belleville tournament.
MAPLEWOOD/SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — The Columbia High School wrestling team enjoyed a great showing at the Belleville Buccaneer Classic tournament on Saturday, Jan. 7. The Cougars took third place out of 12 teams.
Senior Derek Mingmongkol, at 144 pounds, and freshman August Katz, at 126, both took first place; sophomore Reid Ordower took second place at 106 pounds, and sophomore Jared Van Allen took third place at 113 pounds to lead the Cougars.
Following the Belleville tournament, the four wrestlers are a combined 35-5 with 31 pins. Mingmongkol was 10-1 on the season with 10 pins, Ordower was 9-1 with nine pins, Katz was 8-1 with seven pins, and Van Allen was 8-2 with five pins. They are also products of the Maplewood–South Orange recreation team.
Mingmongkol pinned all three opponents at the Belleville tournament. In the finals, he pinned the Mountain Lakes opponent, who pinned him in the previous season. “Derek is such a gamer,” CHS head coach Mike Freedman said in an email to the News-Record. “Just like in the Clifton tournament (on Saturday, Dec. 17), he was down early. The Mountain Lakes wrestler is extremely strong and put Derek on his back, but Derek doesn’t know how to give up. He fought back and pinned the Mountain Lakes wrestler on a move we have been really working a lot in the practice room.”
Though Katz is just a freshman, he “doesn’t wrestle like one,” Freedman said. “He wrestles like an upperclassman and continues to dominate the competition. He is now 9-1 on the year after winning both the Clifton and Belleville tournaments. This was his first time down to 126 and he pinned through the tournament. August works very hard in the wrestling room and it shows on the mat.”
Ordower also has been making strong progress.
“Ordower was 9-0 with nine straight pins before losing his first match of the season to an outstanding wrestler from Belleville,” Freedman said. “Reid gets better every day and is light-years better than he was last year. It’s going to be scary how good he will be in the future. Reid was our lone champion at the Roselle Park tournament on (Thursday) Dec. 29.”
Van Allen also has been impressive.
“I was impressed how Jared wrestled the eventual champ in the (Belleville tournament) semis,” Freedman said. “Jared was winning going into the third period against a tough North Bergen wrestler who won the tournament. Jared is getting better and better and is very coachable. He is currently 8-2 on the season. He doesn’t like to make the same mistake twice and is always trying to improve on his last performance. Jared is also much improved from his freshman year. He has such a bright future in this sport. Reid and Jared are drill partners and push each other in the room every day.”
The Cougars won their first four dual meets before losing two matches on Saturday, Jan. 14, to move to a 4-2 overall record. They defeated Barringer High School 42-20 on Dec. 21, Orange High School 48-34 on Jan. 6, East Orange Campus High School 60-18 on Jan. 11 and Newark Collegiate 60-24 on Jan. 13. They lost to Steinert High School 54-24 and Lawrence High School 48-27 on Jan. 14 at Steinert High School.
Photos Courtesy of Mike Freedman
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