NJWWA Top 20 – Week of Feb. 2, 2026 – Garden State HS Wrestling

The second part of what is likely to be a three-part series to determine who the best public school wrestling team in the state is will take place Saturday at Southern Regional High School in Stafford.

Southern, the three-time defending NJSIAA Group 5 champion, will host four-time defending Group 3 champion Delsea.

Delsea, ranked No. 9 in this week’s New Jersey Wrestling Writers Association Top 20, won the first part of this trilogy when it defeated No. 10 Howell 34-29 Jan. 3 in the final of the Boresch Duals at Newton.

The third round of the trilogy is likely to take place in the NJSIAA South Group 5 Tournament when No. 8 Southern and Howell meet in either the sectional semifinal or final. Right now, the two are currently tied for second in the South 5 power rankings behind Kingsway and would meet in the semifinal. Should at least of them move ahead of Kingsway in the final power rankings after Saturday, they would then meet in the sectional final.

Another big match will take place Thursday night at St. Peter’s Prep when No. 2 Christian Brothers Academy wrestles No. 3 St. Peter’s Prep.

The winner will likely be the No. 2 seed behind No. 1 Delbarton in the NJSIAA Non-Public A bracket. Both teams have been defeated by Delbarton and both have a win over defending Non-Public A state champion and No. 4 St. Joseph (Montvale).

Team Tournament looming

The cutoff for qualification for the NJSIAA Team Tournament is Saturday.

The top eight teams in the final power points in each of the 20 public school sections will qualify. The Non-Public A and B brackets will be seeded by a committee. Any non-public school who chooses to enter will be seeded.

Head-to-head movement in the public school sectional brackets will take place if a team defeated a team immediately above it in the power points.

The team tournament will officially be seeded Feb. 10, begin Feb. 16 for the public schools, Feb. 17 for the non-public teams and conclude Feb. 22 with the seven group championship matches at Rutgers University’s Jersey Mike’s Arena.

This year, for the first time, there will be a girls state team tournament. That championship match will also take place Feb. 22 at Jersey Mike’s Arena.

Key results from last week:

Among the key results from last week were CBA defeating Southern 56-9; Howell defeating No. 16 Jackson Township 41-27; Delsea defeating No. 15 Lower Cape May 42-29 and Immaculata defeating then No. 18 and defending Group 4 champion North Hunterdon 37-30.

Immaculata’s win enabled it to move back into the rankings at No. 18. North Hunterdon drops out.

Here is 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).

1 . Delbarton (14-1) (8) 160

2. Christian Brothers Academy (11-1) 152

3. St. Peter’s Prep (13-2) 144

4. St. Joseph (Montvale) (10-4) 133

5. Camden Catholic (10-0) 131

6. Bergen Catholic (8-2) 120

7. Paramus Catholic (11-3) 112

8. Southern (11-1) 104

9. Delsea (15-2) 96

10. Howell (15-1) 88

11. Pope John (8-2) 79

12. Mount Olive (13-2) 70