Star wrestlers don't fly through the air with the greatest of ease.

But conventional wisdom doesn't mean much to Gateway High School's Cameron Aregood. This is a guy whose idea of "great wheels" are the monster-truck tires he uses in his unique training methods.

"It's a great workout," Aregood said of flipping the huge tires 50 yards down a field and 50 yards back outside the high school in Woodbury Heights.

Hey, whatever works. Aregood might be better known on the South Jersey sports scene as a wrestler who compiled a 31-4 record last winter at 171 pounds, but he's also the Gateway school-record holder in the high jump with a leap of 6 feet, 6 inches.

Aregood also is one of Gateway's rare champions in track and field, thanks to his winning high jump of 6 feet, 2 inches yesterday at the Haddonfield Invitational.

"We don't have a big team," Gateway coach Steve Pasquarello said on a warm, sunny afternoon at Haddonfield High School. "But Cameron is just a good athlete. He can do anything.

"Most wrestlers aren't high jumpers. They throw the shot or something like that. But he's got strong legs and he gets tremendous lift."

Aregood became just the sixth Gateway male athlete to win an event in the 19-year history of the Haddonfield Invitational, which brings together most of the top teams in the Colonial Conference as well as a few other programs from Camden County.

His victory capped a week in which he also set the school record, breaking Erich Wiltsee's 1991 mark of 6 feet, 4 inches.

"I never thought I would set a school record in track," said Aregood, a junior from Woodbury Heights. "I was hoping for a record in wrestling. But this is cool, too."

Pasquarello said Aregood has been "skimming" 6 feet, 4 inches for most of the season, usually settling for winning jumps of 6 feet or 6 feet, 2 inches. In Colonial Conference dual meets, Aregood was 10-0 in the event.

But when Aregood popped his record-setting jump at West Deptford, Pasquarello knew the performance was part technique, part talent, part tires.

"You have to see him with these tires," Pasquarello said. "They look like giant tractor tires, and he's out there flipping them around. I think the bees make nests in them when he's not using them."

Aregood said the tire-flipping is a wrestling training technique, designed to build upper-body and leg strength, as well as explosion.

Somehow, it has also built a champion high jumper.

"I think it goes back to wrestling workouts they used to do at Deptford," Aregood said. "We do it for wrestling and I thought I would keep doing it for track.

"It's great for your upper-body and great for your legs."

Tall and rangy at 6-foot-1, Aregood has a career wrestling record of 63-24, with 45 pins. He will need a monster-truck of a senior season to get to 100 wins, but he's got his sights set on the Gateway school record for career pins.

And that would be something for a high-jump star.

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