NJWWA Top 20 – Week of Jan. 6, 2026 – Garden State HS Wrestling

The third Catholic School Duals this past weekend at Christian Brothers Academy confirmed what most scholastic wrestling fans already knew – Delbarton is right now the state’s best team even though it wrestled without four starters in the final, including three past state medal winners.

However, the tournament resulted in a shake up in who should be ranked where just behind Delbarton.

Christian Brothers Academy, which defeated then No. 2 St. Joseph (Montvale) 38-28 in the semifinal before it was defeated 41-26 by Delbarton in the final, moved up to No. 2.

St. Joseph (Montvale), which is the defending Non-Public A champion, wrestled without two starters, including last year’s 106-pound state champion, JoJo Burke. The Green Knights were then defeated 44-25 by St. Peter’s Prep in the semifinal.

What kind of lineups some of the Non-Public teams are able to put out during much of the regular season is going to be a continuing issue NJWWA voters are going to have to sort through.

St. Peter’s Prep, which entered the tournament ranked No. 6, moves up to No. 3. The Marauders also defeated then No. 5 Bergen Catholic 30-28 in the two-day tournament.

The Catholic School Duals also resulted in some changes at the bottom of the rankings as Immaculata, Seton Hall Prep and St. Augustine, who were all ranked in the first poll of the season, had defeats in the event that result in them dropping out of the rankings.

The first big dual meet action began Monday night with a Howell at Phillipsburg match. Other big matches during the week are Rumson-Fair Haven at CBA Wednesday night; North Hunterdon at Phillipsburg Wednesday night; St. Joseph (Montvale) at Don Bosco Prep Wednesday night; Southern at Rumson-Fair Haven Friday night and a quad meet on Saturday at St. Joseph (Metuchen) involving Paramus Catholic, Delsea and the host school.

Here is the this week’s NJWWA Top 20 with first place votes in parentheses followed by voting points.

The poll will be posted each Tuesday at 5 a.m. through 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 (8-0) (8) 160

2. Christian Brothers Academy (6-1) 151

3. St. Peter’s Prep (4-1) 145

4. St. Joseph (Montvale) (5-4) 135

5. Camden Catholic (4-0) 129

6. Bergen Catholic (4-1) 120

7. Paramus Catholic (3-1) 111

8. Southern (3-0) 103

9. Delsea (5-0) 97

10. Howell (6-1) 89

11. North Hunterdon (4-5) 77

12. Pope John (4-2) 68