Boardman Advances With Win at Wrestling Regionals

The wrestling team came into Tuesday's Region 3 Tournament with six wrestlers competing for a region title. But when the dust settled, only heavyweight Mike Boardman advanced to the quarterfinal round.

With five of Madison's six District 10 place winners wrestling in Tuesday’s preliminary round at Union High School—junior Patsy Davis received a bye into Friday's quarterfinal round by winning a district title—it was Boardman who moved on with a third-period pin over Rahway's Laziek Jones.
 
Boardman, who recorded his first-ever win in the Region 3 tournament, came out aggressively against Jones, pushing the pace all match.

“I feel great. I had a funny feeling coming into tonight,” Boardman said after his match. “I’ve been working on my offense and my reaction time is key. I felt [Jones] leaning in and boom, I just popped the move. I’ve got to wrestle like that the whole tournament and hopefully I’ll be down in [Atlantic City for the state finals].

Madison’s other two senior captains, Ed Carr (160 pounds) and Jake Anzul (189) also wrestled on Tuesday, but both came up short in their bids to extend their seasons.

Carr fell in the first period to Linden’s Travis Foster, while Anzul fell behind in his match against Governor Livingston’s Zach Heisslar, and was pinned late in the third period.

Madison’s other two Region 3 wrestlers came from their junior class as 140-pounder Matt Allen was pinned in the third period by Westfield’s Troy Skibitsky and 145-pounder Peter Willis dropped a 12-2 decision to Hanover Park’s Nick Giordano.

“This time of the year you’re wrestling the best of the best, so you can’t expect to get everybody through,” Madison head coach Steve Healey said. “It’s nice to get some guys here, the three senior captains made it here tonight and Mikey was the one who was victorious.

"It was good for those guys and some of the underclassmen to see what it’s all about,” he continued. “A little work in the off-season and maybe we can get to the next level next year. It’s good to have some underclassmen in the mix.”

Boardman and Davis will continue on the road to Atlantic City in Friday’s quarterfinal round, also at Union.