The second part of the scholastic wrestling dual-meet season has arrived.
The NJSIAA Team Tournament will be seeded Tuesday morning. The 20 public school sections will be seeded based on the final power points and then head-to-head results. Movement in the final seeding can only occur if a team beat a team directly above it in the final power points.
The two state-wide non-public groups will be seeded by a committee.
Who will win most of the group championships is pretty cut and dry.
Delaware Valley (Group 1), Rumson-Fair Haven (Group 2), Delsea (Group 3) and Southern (Group 5), Delbarton (Non-Public A) and Camden Catholic (Non-Public B) are all favored. Delsea is the three-time defending Group 3 champion. Southern is the two-time defending Group 5 champion and Rumson-Fair Haven and Delbarton are defending champions.
The major intrigue at the groups this season will be in Group 4, which appears to be wide-open.
Phillipsburg, which was defeated by Southern the last two seasons in the Group 5 final, dropped down to Group 4 this season.
The Stateliners defeated Mount Olive, last year’s Group 4 runner-up by two points on Dec. 14. Mount Olive was missing two starters in that match.
However, North Hunterdon, coached by former Bergen Catholic coach Dave Bell, defeated Phillipsburg soundly last week.
Other contenders in Group 4 are defending champion Ridge and Middletown North. North Hunterdon defeated Ridge 35-29 last week even though Ridge won eight bouts.
Phillipsburg, Mount Olive and Ridge are in North 1 and North Hunterdon and Middletown North, which was unbeaten until it was defeated by Ocean Saturday, are in North 2.
Major results from last week:
Other significant results from last week, besides North Hunterdon’s wins over Phillipsburg and Ridge, saw No. 1 Delbarton edge traditional national power Blair Academy 30-29 and St. Augustine edge Delsea 35-34.
North Hunterdon, which was ranked earlier this season, and St. Augustine both moved into the rankings.
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).
1 . Delbarton (21-3) (8) 160
2. St. Peter’s Prep (15-1) 147
3. Christian Brothers Academy (8-3) 143
4. St. Joseph (Montvale) (10-3) 139
5. Rumson-Fair Haven (20-1) 125
6. Bergen Catholic (10-3) 123
7. St. John Vianney (11-4) 114
8. Camden Catholic (13-0) 105
9. Southern (12-3) 96
10. Mount Olive (11-3) 78
11. St. Augustine (13-6) 77
12. Delsea (16-2) 75
13. St. Joseph (Metuchen) (10-3) 68
14. North Hunterdon (12-6) 59
15. Phillipsburg (12-3) 50
16. Brick Memorial (10-4) 43
17. Cranford (15-3) 31
18. Delaware Valley (13-3) 18
19. Paramus Catholic (6-7) 17
20. Caldwell (16-1) 7.
Others receiving votes: Pope John (8-5) 6, Middletown North (17-1) 6, Don Bosco Prep (10-5) 5, High Point (15-5) 3.