High School Wrestling: Eastern Quickly Pins Down West Saturday, February 12, 2005 By Anthony Phillips SJSports Special Correspondent With the seedings already established for the upcoming wrestling tournament, two teams finishing out the regular season was Eastern and Cherry Hill West. Both of these squads were leading their division in the Olympic Conference but only one of those teams qualifying for the post season. The Vikings from Eastern were seeded fifth in the Group 4 bracket, but in today’s matchup against Lions showed how focused they were against the leaders in the Patriot Division. Winning their first 5 matches, four of them on pins, Eastern established a lead they never relinquished. The Cougars would make the score respectable at the end as Eastern walked off the mat with a 45-30 marginal victory. Eastern wasted little time controlling this inter-conference match when Dan Donker threw his weight around and recorded Eastern’s first win of the afternoon in the heavyweight bout. Mookie Golden, Mark Maloney and Derek Sharp also registered first period pins jumping Eastern out to a 22-0 advantage through the 119 lb bout. After Paul Lipkin’s decision over Greg Holm gave the Vikings a 28-0 lead, the Cougars finally got on the scoreboard when Rich Aguilar defeated Brandon Woods by an 8-7 margin. Cherry Hill West would finally give their home crowd something to cheer about winning three straight bouts starting with Tom Cunningham’s 9-4 decision over Kevin Woods. The Cougars would close in on their deficit 34-18 before Scott Giffin (Eastern) recorded a technical fault over Jeff Mailhan. The remaining bouts kept the excitement going as the teams traded pins to end the match. Photos by Art Redd Hwt lb - Dan Donker (Eastern) pinned Brett Penn in the first period 103 lb - Mookie Golden (Eastern) pinned Eric Davies also in the first period 112 lb - Mark Maloney (Eastern) pinned Steve McDonald in the first period 119 lb - Derek Sharp (Eastern) pinned Jordan Abromovitz also in the first period 125 lb - Paul Lipkin (Eastern) recorded a major decision over Greg Holm 130 lb - Rich Aguilar (Cherry Hill West) defeated Brandon Woods 8-7 135 lb - Nick Orio (Eastern) pinned Mike Cox early in the first period 140 lb - Tom Cunningham (Cherry Hill West) recorded a 9-4 decision over Kevin Woods 145 lb - Shane Thomson (Cherry Hill West) pinned Cedrick Gonnet in the second period 152 lb - Steve Sochonohak (Cherry Hill West) pinned Rafael Santos in the third period 160 lb - Scott Giffin (Eastern) recorded a technical fault over Jeff Mailhan 25-9 171 lb - Jamie O'Dowd (Cherry Hill West) pinned Jake Cornely in the second period 189 lb - Ryan Radziak (Eastern) pinned Jordan Staub in the first period 215 lb - Eddie Hernandez (Cherry Hill West) pinned Chris Deichart in first period