The second Catholic Duals, held this past Friday and Saturday at Christian Brothers Academy, clearly identified what most wrestling observers already thought – Delbarton is clearly the best team in the state.
However, the power-packed dual-meet tournament created a lot of confusion as to who should be ranked where in the New Jersey Wrestling Writers Association Top 20 due to several teams wrestling with short-handed lineups for a variety of reasons.
The major results of the event were: Christian Brothers Academy defeating St. Joseph (Montvale), which was ranked No. 2 in the preseason rankings, 39-38 on criteria most pins and then Bergen Catholic defeating St. Joseph (Montvale) 48-30 in a match with nine forfeits – seven by St. Joseph (Montvale).
St. Joseph (Montvale) wrestled without five starters, including returning state champions Zach Ballante and Adrian DeJeusus and 2023 state runner-up Anthony Harris. CBA, which was then defeated soundly by St. Peter’s Prep and St. John Vianney in the semifinal and third-place match respectlvely, was wrestling without four starters, including state medal winner Brock Oizerowitz.
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.
The first big week of dual-meet action of the season will be highlighted by Wednesday night’s match betweeen No. 3 St. John Vianney and No. 8 Southern at St. John Vianney in what will be the first of several high-profile matches in the power-packed Shore Conference Class A Division.
Here is this week’s NJWWA Top 20 with first-place votes in parentheses followed by point totals. The poll will run each Tuesday 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 (8-1) (8) 160
2. St. Peter’s Prep (5-1) 150
3. St. John Vianney (5-1) 144
4. Bergen Catholic (4-1) 127
5. CBA (4-3) 125
6. Camden Catholic (5-0) 122
7. St. Joseph (Montvale) (3-2) 119
8. Southern (6-0) 108
9. Delsea (4-0) 100
10. Phillipsburg (5-0) 84
11. Rumson-Fair Haven (5-0) 79
12. Mount Olive (4-2) 64
13. St. Augustine (4-2) 63
14. Don Bosco Prep (4-4) 62
15. Paramus Catholic (1-2) 57
16. Caldwell (4-0) 33
17. St. Joseph (Metuchen) (4-1) 31
18. Cranford (5-1) 22
19. Ridge (7-2) 18
20. Washington Township (4-0) 11
Others receiving votes: Seton Hall Prep (2-5) 9.
