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Chatham went down fighting in Group III final

Chatham went down fighting in Group III final

TOMS RIVER _ Defensively, Chatham gave every ounce of energy it could. And, if a couple more shots had gone down on the offensive end, the Cougars might well have come home with a state championship. However, Mainland Regional was able to rally from a three-point deficit late in the third quarter, outscoring Chatham, 16-6, for the last 10 minutes of the game as the Mustangs took a 42-35 victory over the Cougars in the Group III girls basketball state championship game on Sunday, March 10 at the RWJ Barnabas Arena on the Toms River North High School campus.   Chatham,…
Sydney Petzinger, a sophomore from Parsippany, captured the 100-pound title at the inaugural 2019 State Girls Wrestling Tournament.

Red Hawks Petzinger a state champ

ATLANTIC CITY _ For Sydney Petzinger, it was a classically-trained performance for the ages. Parsippany's Petzinger, showing the technique of an artist like Leonardo da Vinci or Michelangelo or Rembrandt or a painter and sculptor like Pablo Picasso or a musical composer like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart or Ludwig van Beethoven, wove a beautifully-styled mastery of her craft on the mats at Boardwalk Hall. A 15-year-old sophomore, Petzinger earned the 100-pound gold medal Saturday, March 2 with a dominating performance in the state tournament girls wrestling finals as she powered to a 10-0 major decision verdict over Allentown's Jasmine Aizley. This was…
Megan Macaluso, No. 32, set the career rebounding record for Hanover Park on Monday, Feb. 25.

HP advances as Macaluso sets rebounding record

EAST HANOVER _ Hanover Park has moved on from a tight down-to-the-wire Morris County Tournament semifinal loss to Chatham. And now the Hornets are setting their sights on having another strong run in the state tournament. Senior forward Meghan Macaluso set a new school career girls basketball rebounding record on Monday, Feb. 25 as she helped second-seeded Hanover Park to a 58-34 victory over 15th-seeded Newark Central in a North Jersey Section 2, Group II first-round game.   The 5-foot-11 Macaluso, who also scored eight points and had four steals, grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds against the Blue Devils from…
Christina DeMattheis, second from left, and her teammates revel in her buzzer-beating shot in the 2019 Morris County Girls Basketball Tournament final.

Crimson claim MCT title on DeMattheis buzzer beater

RANDOLPH _ Christina DeMattheis put the ball up and time stood still, seemingly for eternity. Multiple thoughts raced through DeMattheis' head in the second or two it took the ball to travel 10 feet. Were the tears that formed in her eyes in anticipation of a miss or from the euphoria of netting the basket that would propel Morristown-Beard to its first Morris County Tournament title in any girls sport?  Twenty minutes later, DeMattheis, understandably, still didn't know and it didn't matter. She was elated by the Crimson's 34-33 victory over top-seeded and defending champion Chatham in the 2019 MCT…
Parsippany's Sydney Petzinger, right, practices single takedowns with Anas Sawalhi at a workout on Friday, Feb. 15.

Petzinger is first girls regional champ

LITTLE SILVER _ Sydney Petzinger was the first. No one can ever take that piece of history away from her. Parsippany's Petzinger became the first regional champion in New Jersey high school girls wrestling history when she pinned Alisa Safforld of Belleville in 4:22 in the 100-pound North Region final on Sunday, Feb. 17. Taking home a silver medal and also advancing to the state tournament at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City in two weeks was Parsippany's Hailey Budney. The top-seeded Budney, a senior, dropped a 2-1 verdict to Veronica Whitacre of Monroe Township in the North 136-pound final. The…
Morristown-Beard celebrates its MCT semifinal victory over Morristown on Friday, Feb. 15, 2019.

Mo-Beard, Chatham to face off in MCT final

RANDOLPH _ The text from Gianna Rella had an emotional impact on each and every one of Morristown-Beard’s players. Rella, a senior, sent the encouraging words from a bed at Overlook Hospital, where she underwent an appendectomy five and a half hours before the Crimson’s first appearance in the Morris County Tournament semifinals on Friday, Feb. 15 at County College of Morris. Morristown-Beard's players read her text in their group chat right before taking to the floor for warmups. You've got this. I'll be there for the final. It was apparent that third-seeded Morristown-Beard, which will meet top-seeded and defending…
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