Wrestling: Skyland opts to break up super division

All good things must end. This seems even more applicable to the high school wresting scene in New Jersey.

The Raritan Division, comprised of the top seven programs in the Skyland Conference and some of the best in the state, is finished after the 2017-18 season. The divisional realignments -- recently approved by conference officials for all sports the next two school years -- scatter these seven programs across three divisions.

Hunterdon Central and Bound Brook move to the Delaware Division, while North Hunterdon and Phillipsburg remain in the Raritan. Delaware Valley, Voorhees and Warren Hills drop down to the Valley Division. The Mountain Division stays in tact from previous seasons. There will be mandatory crossover matches (Delaware vs. Raritan or Valley vs. Mountain) that will count in the standings, locking teams into a minimum of nine conference matches.

P'burg won a Group 4 title and 21st division crown in 2017.

"To be honest, I thought the way we did it the last few years actually made sense," said Phillipsburg coach Dave Post, whose team won the Raritan title last season. In fact, the Stateliners are 146-3 overall in division matches and have won 21 titles (missing only once in 2009-10 when Hunterdon Central won the old Delaware West) since joining the Skyland Conference for the 1995-96 school year.

This is a major shakeup for wrestling, unlike field hockey, for example, where just two teams (Ridge and Watchung Hills) swap places in the Delaware and Raritan. The new two-year alignments were based largely on enrollment size, sans the non-public schools that were placed in divisions. Bound Brook shifts to the large school Delaware based on strength of program, another criteria used if the committee felt a school was grossly misplaced, though Hillsborough, which is larger than Watchung Hills, is somehow in the Raritan. The base alignment for the Skyland Conference puts Group 4 schools in the Delaware and Raritan, Groups 2 and 3 in the Valley and Group 1 in the Mountain -- all spread out over four divisions when it's 19 or more teams.

The big question is: Why mess up a good thing for a sport that needs all the positives it can get?

While it's true that most of these teams will still face each other in dual meets and in the Hunterdon-Warren-Sussex Tournament -- which will be held for the first time at the palatial Phillipsburg High School gym on Jan. 13 -- but winning the Raritan Division as currently constructed is quite a big deal in this age of watered down conferences with trophies awarded to multiple division winners. And what about some of the struggling programs? At least with one strong division, the others can compete on a more level playing field.

There are other issues such as maintaining longstanding traditional rivalries as single dual meets and power point totals. Remember when Voorhees and Warren Hills once wrestled in a quad, one where in some years was held in South Jersey and no one up here could see it without committing to a two-hour-plus drive? The crossovers help to keep rivalry matches, but there's no guarantee they stay as single duals in this era of endless tri-meets and quads.

"I'm OK with splitting up [the divisions], but I don't like the crossovers," said Delaware Valley coach Andy Fitz, whose team has made back-to-back appearances in the Group 2 final (winning the title last season) but has finished third, tied for third (2015-16) and fifth (2014-15) in the current Raritan Division.

"There's never going to be a perfect setup. But there are too many quads, and marquee matchups are what fans want to see. We want to keep traditional rivalries as single duals."

Post, who is not a fan of this new setup, is very concerned about power point numbers, which he believes could be reduced enough to prevent the 'Liners from hosting in the sectional rounds.

"In order to maintain historical rivalries, Warren Hills and Delaware Valley must become independents," he said. "We will be forced to eliminate traditional state public school powers from our schedule."

Seems the Northwest Jersey Athletic Conference will finally get this right for wrestling over the next two years as High Point and Kittatinny will likely be in the same division, which will look more like the old Sussex County Interscholastic League, starting in 2018-19. According to Wallkill Valley AD Daryl Jones, NJAC officials will meet in February to iron out the final details. Strength of program was factored in the construction of divisions. Newton, Jefferson and Lenape Valley will likely join High Point (four wins shy of 700 overall) and Kittatinny, while Hackettstown, Wallkill Valley, North Warren, Hopatcong and Vernon will likely form another division. Sparta and Pope John will be housed in a division that includes the bigger Morris County schools.

Skyland Conference wrestling for 2018-19 and 2019-20

Delaware

Hunterdon Central
Bridgewater-Raritan
Bound Brook
Franklin
Watchung Hills

Raritan

North Hunterdon
Phillipsburg
Hillsborough
Montgomery
Ridge

Valley

Delaware Valley
Voorhees
Warren Hills
Bernards
Somerville

Mountain

Belvidere
Manville
North Plainfield
Pingry
Rutgers Prep