HOWELL, NJ (February 16, 2025) – Back in the 2018-19 wrestling season, the Jackson Memorial Jaguars got to be a part of New Jersey history as being the first ever girls wrestling match as they traveled to wrestle against the Manalapan Braves, and got the first ever win at Manalapan High School, 30-21. The Jaguars got to be part of New Jersey Wrestling history yet again, as they amongst twelve other teams competed in the first ever New Jersey Girls Wrestling Duals Tournament. The Jaguars showed pure dominance on Sunday (02/16) but met its toughest match as they won in the last bout against the Newton Braves, 36-33. The Jaguars, who ended the team season being 12-0, have something really special brewing in the community and the girls seem to really love being able to wrestle in front of their family and friends. However, nobody loves it as much as Head Coach Joe Lemke, who is having the time of his life being able to coach a girls sport that is rapidly growing across the state.
“Girls wrestling is a little bit different where someone pins someone and they give a hug right after,” Coach Lemke said of his perspective on girls wrestling and the Jackson Memorial girls team this season. “What makes this team truly special [is how these] girls are really coming together as a whole unit.”
Jackson started the afternoon at 120 lbs with a 31 second pin from Paloma Lipari as she took on Newton’s Chloe Page. Then the next bout at 126 lbs, while the Braves’ Emma Eigner on the scoreboard show a dominant performance with a 9-2 decision win, the Jaguars’ Jaden Figueroa hung in extremely tough to the point of where she was riding out Eigner for the entire second period and a bulk of the third period, after trailing 7-0 early on. Then it was followed by a pin from Jackson’s Briana Dugo, then it was the Braves’ 138lber Eva Barry with a pin of her own in the 1st period to keep them in the match. With only one regular decision win throughout the entire dual, it was a pin festival between the two teams as many of the Newton hammers were waiting for their time to shine such as Stella Ramos (152 lbs), Paige DeCaro (165 lbs), and Brianna Murray (185 lbs).
At 235 lbs, an impressive showing from Freshman, Kaylee Feraria as she got the early takedown in the first period to have a 3-0 advantage against Abby Paglia. The Junior was ridden out the entire second period by Feraria and was also hit with a pair of stall warnings that helped Feraria to go into the third period with a 4-0 lead. Paglia chose top, threw in a power half, and got the pin for the Braves. With three bouts remaining, Newton was leading 33-18 and the Jaguars knew that they would have to win out and it didn’t matter how but they would be bonus point victories were a necessity to come out on top.
Jackson’s hammers were waiting down low as the Jaguars pinned out from the 100 lber Madison Rucci, 107 lber Ava Bello, and the match of the day from the 114 lber, Marlowe Donato with a pin over Kameko Sibblies (whose father is a former Newton standpoint and current assistant coach on the team). With Donato’s win, it clinched the win for Jackson and the entire team appeared all fired up following the win.
“I knew I had to either win by pin, [tech fall], or a major decision because the score was 33-30 and it came down to me,” Donato said of her heroics in the team victory. “Under pressure, I get a little nervous but I had to overcome that fear and compete like it’s no other match.”
During the match, the team often chose any offensive positions if the bout went into the second or even the third period. a daily practice routine. The way in which the girls practice on getting better is all based on getting more comfortable with being offensive and scoring points in any which way.
“The technique we work [on], we just drill it, drill it, drill it [to work on]. If we are in a situation in a match, we know what to do and we know how to react in weird situations or just situations where you can’t [lose your match],” Donato said. “We just drill the same thing to get [ourselves] better.”
In addition, Coach Lemke also talked about the philosophy of the sport for the girls this season in terms of getting them the best competition that they can be given regardless of the experience. But it all starts with the famous words of, hard work.
“It really starts with them showing up to practice every day, staying late every single day, doing [the extra work] every single day,” Coach Lemke said. “We put in a lot of hard work every single day with working on our feet but it comes down to being greedy [and] that has been our philosophy all season by being tough and being a competitor.”
With the way that Jackson is wrestling, they are not going anywhere anytime soon and this is a team that every team should try to model when they are off building a culture of wrestling around the girls. They are the team that shows grit, perseverance, aggressiveness, engaging, and most of all, having fun with wrestling and that is how this sport is supposed to be for everyone.
What’s Up Next For These Two Teams?:
As the team season comes to a close, both teams will be competing in their respective Region tournaments next Sunday (02/23). Newton will travel to Vernon Township High School for the North 1 Region Tournament while Jackson Memorial is in the Central Region Tournament and will have to travel to Churchill Junior High School.
