Thursday, March 1, 2012

Wrestling: Atlantic City by the numbers

40 -- Highest number of wins entering the tournament. South Plainfield's Anthony Ashnault (126), Scott DelVecchio (132) and Tyler Hunt (138), along with Newton's Jake Connelly (195) are all 40-0 on the season. Belleville's Justin Colon (126) is 40-1 and Haddon Heights' Alex Thompson (285) is 40-2.

15 -- Years without a state champion for Phillipsburg. Senior Brandon Hull is the Stateliners' best hope at 220 to end the drought. The Warren County school, which has produced 32 state champs, hasn't had a gold medalist since Tim Moore and Marc DeFrancesco won titles in 1996. Warren County's last champion overall was Warren Hills' Justin Colaluce, who won his second in 1998.

82 -- Total number of state champions for Newton High School, a state record. The Sussex County school is hitching its wagon to Jake Connelly at 195, who is looking to become the first winner for Newton since Andy Iliff went back-to-back in 1986 and '87. Iliff, now an assistant coach at Newton, was recently inducted into the Region 1 Hall of Fame.

4 -- Returning state champions in this year's field include Seton Hall Prep's Brenden Calas (113), South Plainfield's Anthony Ashnault (126), Camden Catholic's T.J. Miller (145), Mendham's Ryan Harrington (170).

9 -- Region 4's total number of returning placewinners, the most among all eight regions. Region 3, which features the South Plainfield juggernaut from 126-145, is next with eight.

129 -- Combined number of state champions from Union County, by far the most of any county. Sussex is next with 113, but 82 are from Newton. The last Union County champ -- Christian Barber of Westfield in 2011, who was the first since Jesse Boyden of Brearley-Dayton won in '08. Pat Hogan of Cranford and Darrion Caldwell of Rahway captured titles in '06.

7 -- South Plainfield's total of state champs since the program began in 1962. Coach Kevin McCann is on that list, winning the 135-pound title in 1991. He's coached three of the school's winners in two-timer Anthony Ashnault (2010, '11) and Jimmy Conroy (2004). Matt Anderson (2000), Steve Giordano (1989) and Joe Lemmo (1965) are the other Tigers to strike gold.

932 -- Total number of state champions in New Jersey history. This year's tournament is the 79th overall since 1934 -- when Newton's Leo Snover won the first state title and started the Sussex County school's run to a state record 82 champs.

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