Never tell anyone on the Bridgewater-Raritan High School wrestling team the odds.
After a regular season filled with adversity for the reigning state sectional champion Panthers, their hard work finally paid off on Wednesday night.
Despite a multitude of injuries that served as temporary roadblocks along the way, Bridgewater-Raritan head coach Kyle Murphy still guided his Panthers back to a No. 1 seed in the North 2, Group 5 sectional playoff bracket, which culminated in the championship matchup against second-seeded Union High School.
Somehow, someway, the sectional finals ended the same way it did the year before – with the Panthers hoisting the championship trophy on their home mat.
In a thrilling match that was projected to be a toss-up, senior Gabe Medina-Coello found himself in the heavyweight bout for top-seeded Bridgewater-Raritan (20-8) against junior Obreight Ingram, who ended Medina-Coello’s junior season in the gym of second-seeded Union (19-5). Aided by key penalty points in an emotional bout, Medina-Coello rode the momentum of his bench and the home crowd to pull out a stunning two-point victory by decision.
That critical nine-point swing proved to be a match-changer for Bridgewater-Raritan, which built a 17-point lead on the way to a 33-29 victory over Union in the finals of the NJSIAA North New Jersey, Section 2, Group 5, Team Wrestling Tournament on Wednesday, February 18, at Vaughn Stapleton Gymnasium in Bridgewater.
“He has been on my mind all year, so this was a revenge match for me,” revealed Medina-Coello after the match by Medina-Coello, who was pinned by Ingram twice in last season’s NJSIAA Individual Wrestling Tournament: once in the District 14 Tournament, and once more at Union High School’s Region 4 Tournament to eliminate Medina-Coello from state championship contention. “Our coaches push us every day in the room. We have the most confidence in the world and have to keep it pushing, but we were ready.”
“We came out here swinging, and we weren’t scared at all.”
In a thriller where points were otherwise at a premium, Bridgewater-Raritan collected 24 of its 33 points on four first-period pins: one each by senior Matt McCann (165), junior Trent Levash (215), senior Drew Adell (113), and senior Lucas Pelc (120). McCann’s bout opened up the night before Union’s Jonathan Cordova (175) squared off against Bridgewater-Raritan senior Dylan Quintana, who fell behind 3-0 after a takedown in the closing seconds of the first period.
Quintana scored in the second period and trailed just 5-3 after two periods before finding himself in range to tie the bout. With Cordova clinging to an 8-5 lead in the closing minute of the third period, he then won the bout for Union with a late takedown of his own, but settled for just three team points for the Farmers via an 11-5 win by decision.
With one-to-seven-point victories (decisions) being worth three points, eight-to-14-point victories (major decisions) being worth four points, technical falls (mercy rule victories by 15 or more points at any moment) being worth five points, and pins being worth six points, every point and type of outcome mattered.
Especially with a state sectional championship trophy on the line.
Quintana was able to avoid a major decision, which kept Bridgewater-Raritan’s lead at 6-3 two bouts in before senior Feral Cespedes (190) was paired up against Union’s Nick Bertolotti. Both wrestlers played to a scoreless tie after one period before Bertolotti tallied both a takedown and a reversal along the outer rim of play closest to the scorer’s table.
This gave Bertolotti a 6-1 advantage after two periods, but Cespedes still made him work for every point and valiantly held on to go the full distance.
In the closing seconds, Bertolotti tallied a late three-point takedown to upgrade his victory to a major decision, 11-2.
Instead of tying the sectional finals via a regular decision, Union found itself in front by a score of 7-6, but the Farmers’ lead was short-lived.
Levash: the Panthers’ lone returning state qualifier of Bridgewater-Raritan’s four wrestlers they sent to Boardwalk Hall one year ago, tallied a swift win by fall in just 29 seconds.
This gave Bridgewater-Raritan a 12-7 lead it never relinquished, but it was still anyone’s match as Medina-Coello and Ingram then took the mat for the night’s key heavyweight bout.
With the home crowd heavily in favor of the underdog in Medina-Coello, a takedown attempt by Ingram carried his momentum outside of the ring, which drew a late hit on Medina-Coello and a penalty point for unsportsmanlike conduct. This broke a scoreless tie and gave Medina-Coello a 1-0 lead after one period, and another penalty point for Medina-Coello in the second period set him up with a 2-1 advantage four minutes in. At the 4:41 mark, Medina-Coello then appeared to draw a hit to the head, which resulted in two more penalty points being awarded to the Bridgewater-Raritan senior by the match’s officials.
Ingram then rallied to within one point in the final minute – or so everyone in the anxious crowd thought.
At the 5:24 mark of the bout, the officials blew play dead for a scoreboard review, which resulted in a change from 4-3 to 5-2, but most importantly gave Medina-Coello a valuable breather with Ingram’s rally in process. An escape by Ingram then put him in position to snatch the go-ahead takedown, which he appeared to get after the clock struck triple zeros.
As Ingram was denied the go-ahead points, nobody in Bridgewater-Raritan’s electrified home crowd seemed to mind.
Medina-Coello held on for a critical 5-3 win by decision to cushion the Panthers’ lead to 15-7.
“Gabe shocked the world and had an incredible night for us,” praised Murphy of his senior heavyweight, who successfully avenged last season’s pair of losses to Ingram in the individual wrestling tournament. “He was the turning point and a swing match that shocked the Bridgewater-Raritan arena tonight. That was a huge nine-point swing for us. He’s had such a tough, back-and-forth few seasons, but he continues to work and makes us proud.”
“I’m happy to call him our heavyweight.”
Even a decision (non-pin) in favor of Ingram would have been a six-point swing, which would have resulted in a 32-30 victory for Union, assuming each of the remaining 13 bouts had the same outcome.
“It wasn’t about me, because it was a team effort,” praised Medina-Coello of his squad, which won back-to-back state sectional titles for the first time in program history. “Every time I felt like I was hurting or every time I felt like I couldn’t get up, I just looked to the guy to the right of me and left of me. I knew it wasn’t just for me, but it was for us.”
“At the end of the day, WE got it done.”
What could not be measured on the scoreboard, however, was the surge felt across Bridgewater-Raritan’s bench and home crowd.
Bridgewater-Raritan freshman Hunter Karp (106) then launched the lower-weight bouts against Union’s Christian Hargrove, who tallied one takedown in each of the first and second periods to take a 6-1 lead into the final two minutes. While Karp was able to extend the bout for the full six minutes, a late three points by Hargrove gave Union a major decision in its favor, which cut its deficit in half to 15-11.
Wins by fall in 1:42 for Adell (113) and Pelc (120) then extended Bridgewater-Raritan’s lead to 27-11 before freshman Lucas Churpakovich (126) found himself behind against Union’s Jaydon Robles. While Churpakovich lost the bout, nobody in Bridgewater-Raritan’s crowd seemed to mind after he closed it out with a late takedown, which helped him avoid a major decision at the buzzer.
As a result, Robles settled for a 12-6 win by decision to cut Bridgewater-Raritan’s lead to 27-14.
With five bouts to go and a maximum of 30 points at stake, Union was nearly out of breathing room.
Junior Michael Garcia (132) then found himself in complete control against Union’s Macain Romain, who held on late to avoid a technical fall to crack the door back open for the Farmers. The 17-3 major decision by Garcia extended Bridgewater-Raritan’s lead to 31-14, but Union responded with a pin in 1:51 by Ariel Azeredo (138) to quickly get six points back with three bouts to go.
Union’s Aidan Cross (144) then exploded out of the gate with seven first-period points against Bridgewater-Raritan freshman Marcus Puorro, who came up big in crunch time despite surrendering the bout’s first nine points. Puorro’s two third-period points helped him avoid a major decision, as Cross had to settle for a 9-2 win by decision to trim Union’s deficit to 31-23.
With two bouts to go, Bridgewater-Raritan sophomore Douglas Hesse (150) took the mat with a chance to mathematically clinch the Panthers’ sectional title defense against Union’s Enzo Tammaro, who collected the first point in a bout that the Farmers needed to win.
At 3:51, Hesse got on the board with what proved to be the go-ahead takedown, which resulted in an injury stoppage and a 3-1 lead for the Panthers’ sophomore wrestler.
That, along with a stretch of the final 2:09 that probably felt like an eternity.
“The whole match, I was confident and felt like I was going to win,” reflected afterwards by Hesse, who was sidelined for about half of the regular season due to injury. “We’re very religious, so I just put it all in the Lord’s hands, and he kind of took it away from me. But there wasn’t a second in my mind where I thought I was going to lose this match.”
“Everything I did was planned, but that’s just how it has to be.”
Hesse sealed the match by 6-1 decision for Bridgewater-Raritan, which was subsequently deducted a team point by the match’s officials due to what understandably appeared to be excessive celebration.
Nobody on the Panthers’ roaring sideline or crowd seemed to mind.
That ended up being the final bout of the night, as Sean Messina (157) closed out the evening with a win by forfeit for Union in the middle of thundering applause from the Bridgewater-Raritan crowd.
Those six points were not enough for the Farmers, as Bridgewater-Raritan held on for its history-making 33-29 victory.
“This was the most important win in my career up to this point,” said Murphy, who has back-to-back sectional championship trophies as a coach to go with the trophy he helped win as a senior for Bridgewater-Raritan High School in 2016. “We had eight different starters this year, countless injuries, matches that didn’t go our way, and moments in this season that were just so hard and grueling. Everything culminated at once in this one. Every single kid did their job, came out and fought, and gave everything they could for this team.”
“I couldn’t be prouder to be the coach of this team and couldn’t be prouder of this school.”
The Panthers’ wrestling state sectional championship was their third trophy alone of the 2025-26 winter season, which saw both Bridgewater-Raritan’s boys’ and girls’ swimming teams win state sectional championships one week earlier. Later that night, the Bridgewater-Raritan High School ice hockey team successfully defended its Skyland Cup title, which was sealed after a 6-5 overtime victory over North Hunterdon Regional High School / Voorhees High School co-op a few miles away at Bridgewater Sports Arena.
While Bridgewater-Raritan (20-8) will again be playing with house money as an underdog next at Central, Group 5 champion Old Bridge High School (21-6), anything is possible this deep into the team season, especially given the Knights stunned New Jersey’s No. 12 ranked team in Jackson Township High School, 39-29, to win their sectional title on the road Wednesday evening in Jackson.
Not only will the Panthers and Knights square off at 6 p.m. Friday, February 20, in Old Bridge in the Group 5 state semifinals.
Should Bridgewater-Raritan pull off the upset of Old Bridge, its wrestling team will join its boys’ and girls’ swimming teams at Rutgers University for the Group 5 state finals, which is scheduled for 12 p.m. at Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway. This will take place shortly after the Panthers’ 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. boys’ and girls’ swimming state championship meets, respectively, which will both be contested at the Sonny Werblin Recreation Center just a mile and a half away.
“I have to give a shoutout to our other winter sports who are doing outstanding right now,” Murphy said of Bridgewater-Raritan High School. “This is specifically exciting for our program winning back-to-back sectional titles, our third overall since [Bridgewater-Raritan High School East and West] were combined, and our fourth in Bridgewater-Raritan history.”
“I’m so proud of the kids.”
Unlike other team sports, no matter what happens on the wrestling mat this weekend, it is only the beginning for a Bridgewater-Raritan squad that is peaking – and healthy, at the right time.
The road to Atlantic City and New Jersey’s symbolic NJSIAA Wrestling Individual Tournament: arguably one of the toughest wrestling tournaments to win in the country, will begin the following weekend. Bridgewater-Raritan will compete in one of the state’s 32 District Tournaments, which will send the top three place winners in each individual weight class to one of eight Region Tournaments.
Bridgewater-Raritan’s individual wrestlers will compete in the NJSIAA District 14 Wrestling Tournament, which will be contested 9 a.m. Saturday, February 28, at South Plainfield High School in South Plainfield.
The top three finishers in each weight class at South Plainfield will advance to the two-day NJSIAA Region 4 Wrestling Tournament. The first phase will take place at 5 p.m. on Friday, March 6, while the second phase will begin at 9 a.m. Saturday, March 7, at Union High School in Union. Anyone who finishes in the top four at their corresponding region tournament: 32 wrestlers total across each weight class, will punch their tickets to the NJSIAA State Wrestling Individual Tournament at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.
Including Levash, four of the Panthers’ individual wrestlers represented their program at last year’s three-day event, which will occur from Thursday, March 12, through Saturday, March 14, to round off the 2025-26 season.
“I came back, found my spot, and I think I’m making a difference for this team,” concluded Hesse about what lies ahead for Bridgewater-Raritan at both the team and individual tournaments. “It’s truly an honor to have two state sectional titles as a freshman and a sophomore. We had a very good team last year, and this year could be just as good if we keep working. I’m also honored to be the 20th Hesse in my family to wrestle in high school. It’s just in our blood and DNA.”
“I’m going to go for that state title one day.”