I know it’s considered an upset based on seed but Audubon is just a straight up better team this year than Paulsboro. Paulsboro wrestled a perfect match and had everything go right in the dual this season and won by 4 .last night Audubon just went out and took it. Congrats to Audubon they have some solid guys i believe they wrestle Emerson tomorrow night that’s one far trip for one of those teams
Audubon is home and their gym will be rocking. I like their chances to get to Rutgers.
It's never perfect, and it's even harder now with all the transfers and further consolidation of power at private schools with more elite wrestlers transferring in, even just for senior year. No one should be allowed to transfer senior year, and you should only get 1 transfer the 1st 3 years with a 45 days sit out.
Honestly not sure exactly how it should have broken down but Middletown South and Middletown North both would have won central 3, 4, and 5 as well as South Jersey 4 and both ran into North Hunterdon in North 2 Group 4. Both of those schools should be in central 4 which only has 12 teams and none of them are any good.
It’s a decent crowd overall, but plenty of seats available. The fans tend to cluster around the mats where their team is.
There are other teams you could use the same logic. No easy answer.
Swimming state championships already moved up to 9 AM at Rutgers/Werblin and they combined boys and girls.
It's not a great venue for this because they only use upper level (200 & 300) seating for fans due to mat space on the floor, but it gets pretty full with 4 matches each session. You can buy tickets from Rutgers: https://scarletknights.evenue.net/events/HSWR
Was just coming to post that. 10 AM & 1230 starts now:
All eyes on Delbarton and CBA. Del Val is going to destroy Emerson. Mount Olive will win but TRE can score points down low and with DeLorenzo/Capello in the middle so it won’t be a total slaughter like the others you mentioned. Southern vs anybody other then Howell in group 5 is a joke and like 12 starters are back next year ,5 are only freshman and that includes the best kid on the team.
Would be the smart thing to do. Lower Cape May wrestling at 12:30 is stupid.
Both Middletown South and North lost to Jackson a couple weeks ago so wouldn't of been favored in CJ 5
I had to double check Long Branch's record after seeing that result. Gotta give credit where it's due though with Southern. They went to Delsea and beat 'em. They beat Pburg. Can't really say they haven't proven their claim to best public team in the state.
I’m sure people look at the Delby-CBA score and assume it was never a match. In actuality CBA won 6 to Delby’s 8 and if not for a huge pin by Logan and upset win by DeNegri could have been a different story. Logan decided to wrestle 10 minutes before he went out there and had to borrow the other 75s headgear, shoes and singlet.
I know people complain that southern recruits kids from time to time but what they’ve built the past 25 years is pretty amazing and to keep it going strong when most other blue bloods have fell off bc of the parochial schools is another accomplishment in itself.
Delbarton was up 30-6 idk how much that would’ve mattered.The upset was pretty big. DeNegri is the backup 190 and beat cba state and nationally ranked kid and it wasn’t really that close of a match. Plus the Kenny brothers only scoring 6 total points against 2 of the lesser guys in the delbarton lineup. Delbarton just wanted that one more yesterday. I hope Logan wrestles in states he has a torn mcl and is already committed to Michigan so it’s not like he needs to risk it but you can’t really make a completely torn mcl worse. Logan father and Damian Hahn are 2 of the best high school wrestlers I’ve ever seen, I practiced at a club Damian was coaching for back in hs and he really knew how to break down position and explain them
Southern doesn’t have a perochial in their backyard, it’s why they’re able to do what they do consistently. This would never happen but if Donovan Catholic, for example, ever decided to go all in on wrestling, invested a ton of money into their facilities and hired a top tier coach to lead the program (like a Frank Molinaro or Jimmy Lawson for example), Southern’s run would be nearing its end.
Idk if kids would leave southern for DC . Southern may lose out on some of the kids they recruit but Southern has built that program up enough to where you don’t need to jump ship to get the private school training. It’s real rare nowadays but some programs have built enough winning culture through the decades to withstand it. Rodney Van Ness has built up Immaculata fast and I know the 3 best hunterdon central wrestlers transferred in, Vorhees kids too, they been losing guys in all sports to immaculata for a long time but both of those wrestling programs are in complete shambles but I don’t expect P- Burg, Del Val or North Hunterdon with Bell coaching to lose guys to them and I think southern and DC would be similar kids want to wrestle for these teams and wear those singlets
CC lives in its own little world which is probably smart because they have some studs but can’t hang with the traditional powerhouses. And their kids rarely have to worry about f’ing up their tourney seedings.
14 point win…but those two matches accounted for 9 Delby points. If CBA wins 75 and 215 by just decisions not even bonus they would have been champs 26-25 (unless I messed up the math). Those matches basically decided it all.
Genuinely curious who they have recruited to wrestle for them in recent memory. Only names I can think of are Frank Molinaro and Eddie Hummel.
Keith Dillard, Kyle Casseletto, pretty sure Carson was recruited to go there, someone else came the same year or year after Hummel and they picked up a few more over the years but usually just one or two guys here and there
You're impressed that a public school continues to recruit well?
Wouldn't need 5 groups if NJSIAA did its job and stopped the recruiting and transfer madness. You want to alienate all those public schools that actually play by the rules, and their only goal is to win a section title and then make it to Rutgers to get pounded by a recruiting school?
North already lost multiple wrestlers to them. Everyone has because the NJSIAA allows the ridiculous recruiting and free transfers. All NJSIAA cares about is selling tickets to states, and those parochials buy a lot of tickets as do the recruiting publics.
Camden Catholic would rather beat up on the South Jersey publics than challenge one of the Dogs in North Jersey.
Lower Cape May is my high school. Over the decades, they have been every bit as snake bit as my university. After the injury, there was a decision on whether or not to move their best wrestler who usually goes at 138 and the next lower weight class up a class each depending on how things were unfolding. But of course, the toss of the coin caused those to be the first two weight classes contested and they were put to the decision at the outset, so the effect of the injury was magnified.
I thought it was odd the first session started at HWT and the second was at 132. Wouldn’t consistency make sense across all matches? I also think NJ may be the only state that flips a coin instead of higher seed getting choice. Is there even a benefit to being the higher seed - better locker room at Jersey Mikes?
Hmm not as much as I expected. I think Rumson does more recruiting now than it seems Southern has.
These issues are so easy to address yet typical incompetence leads to ridiculous results. I didn’t realize senior Anthony DePaul (and his younger brother) plus senior Adam Froelich all transferred to Delsea. People complain about the private schools but the real outrage should be with the public schools that recruit seniors to stack their lineups.
Rumson has definitely taken over the recruiting title. I believe they have kids from 5 different home states on their roster. Possibly more.
It happens all over now. People will go anywhere now for good coaching and putting their son in the environment they feel is best for his success.
Sure, but it’s another thing for a public school to solicit those kids. Lost a lot of respect for Deluca the way he runs his program. Between the recruiting, the forfeiting, and the way he speaks to other coaches and local media, he’s a lot.
I knew the DePauls transferred but they came from st Augustine, private school kids going back to their public school is a good thing . Can’t be too mad about Froelich either, he placed 4th 2x and 3rd once in the districts coming into this season and now he’s ranked in the state so that worked out perfectly
