Cullen Day and Travis Jones make for perfect practice partners in the Phillipsburg wrestling room – because they are nothing like each other.
Day, the Stateliners’ junior 106-pounder, is an artist on his feet, slick and deft and quick. Jones, the sophomore 113-pounder, is a wizard on the mat, able to extract back points out of any situation.
“Totally opposite styles,” Phillipsburg head coach Dave Post said.
Yet the two different approaches allow each of the wrestlers to work on getting stronger where they are less adept.
“Cullen takes me down about every 5 seconds when we go live,” Jones said. “But I am improving; it’s getting to be every 10 seconds now.”
The different approaches for Day and Jones produced similar results Saturday – District 9 championships for both in the tournament at Phillipsburg. Day knocked top-seeded junior Jacy Jones of Montclair 5-2 while Jones decked Bloomfield senior Angel Mercado in 3 minutes and 1 second.
Day, in fact, showed off his improvement as a mat wrestler when, trailing Jones 2-1 in the third period after being reversed, he reversed Jones and tacked on back points to secure the win.
“I knew I just had to keep my focus and get back to my plan and not let that he reversed me bother me,” Day said. “I had to get back to scoring more points.”
Jacy Jones presented Day with a difficult tactical situation because of his lankiness and height.
“Even on the podium (from the lower second place spot) he was taller than me,” Day said. “Sometimes that’s OK to wrestle on your feet with a guy like that because there’s more legs to get when you shoot, but on the mat, on bottom, you have to keep moving and get to your base before he gets those legs in.”
Working against Travis Jones’ multiple leg attacks helped against Jacy Jones, and in the semifinal as well when Day survived Caldwell freshman Darren Jones 3-0.
“Cullen was able to fight off a really great scramble in the first period,” Post said, “Earlier in the year he would have been taken down there.”
Day said he needed what Travis Jones brings to practice.
“Travis definitely helps me on the mat,” Day said. “Working with him is exactly what I need because he has that really good hazard tilt. When you wrestle with Travis you always have to stay in good position.”
The same is true when Travis Jones faces Day.
“It’s such a different match for me when I can get the first takedown instead of getting taken down, and working with Cullen makes me better and better on my feet,” Jones said. “This week in practice I was focus on my takedowns. Working with Coach (Brad) Gentzle has been helping me go after kids. If I keep getting better on my feet and working on my tilts, the sky is the limit.”
That’s true for both ends of the opposites-attract pairing of Cullen Day and Travis Jones.
Brad Wilson may be reached at bwilson@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @bradwsports. Find Lehigh Valley high school sports on Facebook.
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