Sports

Wrestling Team Focuses on Individuals for District Meet

District meet kicks off tonight at WHS.

The objective for the Westfield High School wrestling team this weekend at the District 11 Tournament? It's to get as many wrestlers as possible to next week's Region III Tournament at Union.   

The Blue Devils, who host the tournament, are the defending champions. But with powerful Brearley moving over from District 10 and a deep Cranford team in the mix, the Blue Devils will be focusing on the individuals. 

The tournament begins at WHS Friday at 5:30 with pre-quarterfinal and quarterfinal rounds, then move to semifinal round bouts Saturday at 10 a.m., followed by consolations at 1 p.m. and finals at about 3. The top three finishers in 14 weight classes go on to compete in next week's region meet. The top three in that meet, go on to the state championships at Atlantic City the weekend of March 5.   

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Westfield returns four wrestlers who qualified for the regions last year. Sophomores
Mike Kalimtzis and Troy Skibitsky, junior Christian Barber and senior Brian Henry.
Barber, who is the No. 2 seed at 140 pounds, won the 130-pound title last year.
Kalimtzis, second at 103, is back at the same weight. Skibitsky, a runnerup at 112, is
the No. 3 seed at 125. Henry was second at 145 last year, and is the third seed at the
same weight.   

"We want to get as many kids as we can out of the districts,'' said coach Glen
Kurz. "And we're hoping the kids can get as many individual goals as they can. We want to get kids like (Bill) Kim (second seed at 171 pounds) and (Ryan) Jennings (senior sixth seed at 135 pounds).''

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