Millburn Wins Sachsel Cup for Fifth Straight Year Over Chatham

For five years, the Sachsel Cup has known only one home—Millburn High School.

The winner of the annual Chatham vs. Millburn wrestling match is awarded with the Sachsel Cup, named after Gerard Sachsel, the founder of both the Millburn and the Chatham High School wrestling programs.

"It's very important," said Millburn head coach Mike Artigliere of the cup. "Ever since we've started it, it has never left Millburn, and we want to keep it that way."

On Tuesday night in the fifth installment of the annual event,  the Millburn boys beat a depleted Chatham squad, which was down 24 points before a match was even wrestled due to forfeits. Chatham wound up spotting Millburn 18 by the time it was over. The Millers came away with a 48-22 win in a match where Chatham had very little opportunity to win.

"Twenty-four points in high school wrestling is pretty much impossible," said Chatham head coach Mike Carbone. "We have two concussions, another injury and a fourth injury... You have to flip it anyway you can. It stinks to lose, but wrestling is a sport where your team can lose, but you can win."

The big story of the day was senior co-captain Sam Waters picking up his 100th career high school victory, becoming the sixth wrestler in Millburn history to reach the century mark.

"It's very special. Even though the match count is more than it was in the past, still to win over 25 matches a year is not very easy to do," Artigliere said. "It's a very special accomplishment. I know a lot of good wrestlers that haven't achieved 100 wins."

At the 125 pound slot Waters turned a first round takedown into three near-fall points and jumped out to an early 5-0 lead. He picked up two more takedowns in the second round and another in the third to come away with a dominant 9-2 win.

"It feels pretty good, especially after missing the first half of the season and not really being sure if I'd be able to get to this point," Waters said. "Finally being back out here and picking up those wins and getting that milestone is great."

Dylan Pollock dominated Chatham's Justin Angle in the 103 bout. He jumped out to commanding 10-1 lead in the first round and never let up, eventually earning the technical in the final round, at 18-3.

At 119, Millburn's Teddy Gruer owned John Elmasri. He used a double leg takedown and a cradle to get a near-fall and go up 5-0 after the opening round. From there, he did not allow his opponent to earn a single point through takedowns, or even escapes, winning 13-0.

The first bout of the day came at 152 pounds where Millburn's Shai Bialer claimed a narrow 5-4 minor over James Salinardi. Bialer scored two takedowns in the first round, and allowed one escape. In the second round, starting from the neutral position, Salinardi countered a Bialer takedown attempt into two points of his own to get within a point. Both wrestlers scored one escape the rest of the way through.

Jeff Fricke provided the first win of the day for the Cougars, earning a 12-4 major over Gabe Gordon at 160. Fricke jumped to an early 4-1 lead, then expanded to an 8-3 lead by the end of the second round. After starting the third round in the down position, he used a reversal and another takedown to pick up the victory. Fricke was never taken down in the match.

At 171 Danny Freeman shutout Ben Reibman, winning 6-0, and at 189 pounds Millburn's Austin Harrison earned a first round pin with less than one second remaining over Kieran Brennan.

With the match knotted at two in the third round of the 215 bout, Chatham's Jeff Furbish caught Millburn's Sam Caivano in an awkward position and capitalized, turning it into a pin with 1:34 left to wrestle. In the heavyweight bout Chatham's Macklin Cosgrove used a sudden reversal in the third round to get the pin down with 1:15 remaining.

The Cougars fell to 4-15 after the loss, and Millburn improved to 9-6 with the win. Chatham wrestles again on Wednesday at home against Hanover Park, and Millburn faces Newark Academy on Friday.