By Jeff Cummins, Staff Writer
\nMAPLEWOOD, NJ – Years from now, the McLaren brothers will be,\u00a0 regaling
\nrelatives with stories from the day they each won a district wrestling,\u00a0 title.<\/p>\n
These are the kind of stories that often get more embellished with,\u00a0 the
\npassage of time.
\nOnly the McLaren brothers ” standouts for Columbia High School,\u00a0 ” won’t have
\nto embellish their stories.<\/p>\n
Bradley McLaren was supposed to,\u00a0 win the 275-pound title; he was seeded No.
\n1. Bryan, however, was seeded No. 4,\u00a0 at 160 pounds, and he had to go through
\nthe top seed, Eric Bergman of Seton Hall,\u00a0 Prep.<\/p>\n
Bryan never pinned an opponent in the tournament. It didn’t matter,\u00a0 though,
\nbecause he didn’t have to pin anyone. Decisions will do just,\u00a0 fine.<\/p>\n
In his semifinal match, he edged Bergman, 5-3. Then, in the final,\u00a0 Bryan
\nlooked like he was well on his way, taking a 7-1 lead. Suddenly, Hany,\u00a0 Elsheikh
\nof Brearley had tied the score on a reverse, and now he was holding,\u00a0 Bryan’s
\nleft leg in the air “and Elsheikh seemed to be holding Bryan’s fate in,\u00a0 the
\ntournament, as well.<\/p>\n
Suddenly, while hopping on one leg, Bryan shook,\u00a0 himself free from Elsheikh,
\nscoring the go-ahead point with the escape. With,\u00a0 only seconds left, Bryan
\nfended off Elsheikh and won the title, 8-7.<\/p>\n
“I,\u00a0 wanted it so bad. I knew I wasn’t coming back next year,”\u009d said Bryan, a
\nsenior.,\u00a0 “This is the top of the world. It’s beautiful. I said one year, this
\nhas to be,\u00a0 mine. It’s the biggest thing ever. It felt good paying him
\n(Elsheikh) back. He,\u00a0 beat me at the beginning of the year.”\u009d<\/p>\n
One thing made Bryan’s win even,\u00a0 sweeter. Angelo DiLeo of Seton Hall Prep,
\nwho pinned Bryan in last year’s,\u00a0 171-pound final, was in the audience.<\/p>\n
“Angelo was watching. I had to pull,\u00a0 it off,”\u009d he said.<\/p>\n
Through Bryan’s match against Elsheikh, his brother,\u00a0 Bradley, paced along
\nthe edge of the gym, yelling, “Let’s go, Bryan!”\u009d throughout,\u00a0 the match.<\/p>\n
Then, once Bryan, 19-6, captured his championship, the,\u00a0 pressure shifted to
\nBradley. For much of Bradley’s match, Thomas Weaver of,\u00a0 Irvington, seeded No.
\n2, seemed to be getting the best of Bradley. There were,\u00a0 times when Bradley
\neven looked as if he might not have enough energy in the tank,\u00a0 to come back..<\/p>\n
Then, suddenly, Bradley mustered up the strength to reverse,\u00a0 Weaver and, in
\none twisting motion, put Weaver on his back, pinning Weaver,\u00a0 several seconds
\nlater, at 4:53. After briefly celebrating his victory, Bradley,\u00a0 turned and
\npicked up Weaver, who was momentarily stunned by the suddenness of,\u00a0 the pin.. In an
\nimpressive show of sportsmanship, the two wrestlers raised each,\u00a0 others’ arm
\nas the winner as Bradley was announced as the winner.<\/p>\n
“Our,\u00a0 coaches push us hard. It makes us tough,”\u009d said Bradley, 25-4,
\nexplaining the,\u00a0 extra reserve of energy he showed in the third period. “He was
\ntired.
\nWhen he,\u00a0 stopped right there, he was tired, and I had to get him. It was then
\nor never.,\u00a0 So I took my chance and I won.”\u009d<\/p>\n
Did it add anything to his match, knowing,\u00a0 that his brother had already won?<\/p>\n
“It added a lot. If my brother won, of,\u00a0 course I had to win,”\u009d said Bradley. ”
\nHe would have been nice about it if I’d,\u00a0 lost, but he probably would have
\nthrown it in my face a little.”\u009d<\/p>\n
Yes,\u00a0 there’s a pretty good chance they’ll tell that story in the McLaren
\nhouse at,\u00a0 every holiday dinner for generations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Jeff Cummins, Staff Writer MAPLEWOOD, NJ – Years from now, the McLaren brothers will be,\u00a0 regaling relatives with stories from the day they each won a district wrestling,\u00a0 title. These are the kind of stories that often get more embellished with,\u00a0 the passage of time. Only the McLaren brothers ” standouts for Columbia High […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wrestling"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":6}},"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2B7Di-wY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2044\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}