The first full week of dual meets was wild and resulted in some reshuffling in the New Jersey Wrestling Writers Association Top 20.
One of the big results of the week was St. Joseph (Montvale), which is still without four starters, including two returning state champions and a 2023 state finalist, defeating then No. 4 Bergen Catholic on criteria (most bouts won) after a 33-33 tie.
That result enabled St. Joseph (Montvale), which had fallen from No. 2 to No. 7 last week after it sustained two defeat in the Catholic School Duals, including one to Bergen Catholic, on Jan. 3-4 while wrestling short-handed, to move back up to No. 5, just ahead of Bergen Catholic.
The bottom part of the rankings underwent a major reorganization after then No. 18 Cranford was defeated by then unranked Brick Memorial and then No. 20 Washington Township was thumped by unranked Lacey.
Cranford, Washington Township and Ridge all drop out of the rankings this week and are replaced by North Hunterdon, which edged Delaware Valley 34-33, in the big match in West Jersey last week, unbeaten Middletown North and Brick Memorial.
Here is this week’s NJWWA Top 20 with first-place votes in parentheses followed by voting points.
The rankings will run each Tuesday during the dual-meet season.
NJWWA voting members in alphabetical order: Donald J. Brower (gardenstatehswrestling.com); Frank D’Esposito (shoreconferencewrestling.com); Steven Falk (Asbury Park Press and app.com); Sean Farrell (The Record and NorthJersey.com); Tom McGurk (Courier Post and courierpostonline.com); Andy Mendlowitz (Home News Tribune, Courier News and MyCentralJersey.com); Michael Weilamann (Open Mike and mikeopen.blogspot.com); Brad Wilson (lehighvalleylive.com/The Express Times).
1 . Delbarton (10-1) (8) 160
2. St. Peter’s Prep (7-1) 150
3. St. John Vianney (6-1) 144
4. Christian Brothers Academy (5-3) 133
5. St. Joseph (Montvale) (6-2) 131
6. Bergen Catholic (7-2) 1116
7. Camden Catholic (8-0) 114
8. Southern (8-1) 112
9. Delsea (8-0) 98
10. Phillipsburg (6-0) 85
11. Mount Olive (8-3) 76
12. Rumson-Fair Haven (9-1) 74
13. St. Augustine (7-4) 68
14. Don Bosco Prep (4-4) 60
15. St. Joseph (Metuchen) 46
16. Caldwell (8-0) 38
17. Paramus Catholic (2-4) 28
18. North Hunterdon (4-2) 16
19. Middletown North (11-0) 14
20. Brick Memorial (7-1) 9
Other receiving votes: Delaware Valley (8-1) 7, Cranford (9-2) 5, Ridge (9-2) 5, Wayne Valley (10-0) 1.
