You got to believe. North Hunterdon's wrestling team certainly didn't lack confidence despite coming off the program's first losing season in eight years, with a new head coach who had never experienced measured success at the helm of a public school.
Yes, there were questions. But the Lions never wavered in the process. The result was North winning a
third Group 4 title in five seasons (no team events due to the pandemic in 2021) with a 37-27 win over Phillipsburg on Sunday afternoon at Rutgers University's Jersey Mike's Arena. P'burg also dropped a 34-24 decision when the teams met during the regular season on Jan. 29.
North (17-6), which captured its seventh state championship overall, along with an 18th sectional title, finished up as the highest-ranked team in the Hunterdon-Warren-Sussex area at No. 12 in the final New Jersey Wrestling Writers Association Top 20, released on Wednesday morning.
Not bad for a program that went 7-13 last season under coach Dave Bell, who captured 11 state titles during his amazing 25-year career at Bergen Catholic. It was North's first sub-.500 campaign since finishing 9-10 in 2015-16.
"From the start of last year, we were all saying that we were going to win a state title," said sophomore Cayden Wadle, who set up North's previous win over P'burg with the first of two victories vs. freshman Zack Swingle at 106 pounds. "Just having that attitude and mentality, and working hard in the [practice room] all the time. That's really what got us here."
Phillipsburg (17-4), which
won its 42nd sectional title and was denied its first state championship since 2022, ended up one spot behind at No. 13. Delaware Valley (19-3), which
won the Group 1 title, checked in at No. 17. Pope John (11-6), which fell in the Non-Public B final, made it four area teams in the final poll as the Lions entered the rankings for the first time at No. 18.
North had some tense moments and got a few late heroics, as it did in the first meeting with P'burg, to secure its latest championship. At one point, the Stateliners had made up five team points from their previous loss when senior ace Gavin Hawk pinned in the eighth bout at 157. But North won the flip and was able to move senior Joshua Joubert away from Hawk, and the Lion set the championship wheels in motion with a technical fall in the next bout to give North a 22-21 lead it would not relinquish.
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| North won 4 of its titles in G3 (1982, 84, '94 and 2002) |
Two bouts later, unheralded sophomore
Anthony DeSimone's 9-7 win at 215 -- his second this season over HWS champion Kevin Buonocore -- on a late third-period takedown sealed it. That's when Bell could finally relax after he had earlier stopped trying to keep tabs on the team-point situation.
"I'm just a match-by-match guy," said Bell, who orchestrated the biggest turnaround at North since a 7-5 finish in 1982-83 preceded a Group 3 title run and a 17-2 record in Fred Pierro's final season as head coach in 1983-84. The Lions also went from 7-7 in 1980-81 to 17-2 and its first state championship in 1981-82.
"For awhile, I was talking to [assistant coach] Darren Schulman saying, 'Where are we?' Then I just said, 'Hey, we're just going to wrestle. I teach history. I'm terrible at math. OK, if we win 215, then we win. That's when I knew. I didn't know the whole time. I knew we lost [some points from the first meeting] and we made up some, but enough to win."
Bell also became the first HWS area head coach to lead two programs to state titles since Mike Rossetti did it at Jefferson (Group 2 in 1992, '93 and '94) and P'burg (1996 in Group 3, '97, '98 and '99 in Group 4).
"That's rarified air. That's awesome company," said Bell, whose team will be home for the District 14 Tournament on Saturday.
Dominant Del Val
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| DV has won 10-plus duals in 51 of its 63 seasons |
Delaware Valley sure made it look easy in winning its third Group 1 title in four seasons with a 47-16 pasting of Hanover Park. The tight-knit Terriers outscored their five postseason opponents -- including three victories in
capturing the program's 23rd sectional championship -- 328-40 (a 57.6 average margin).
"I feel like we saved our best [performance] for last," said senior
Jackson Bush, who
picked up his 100th win in the title match with a pin at 150 pounds. "We kept improving throughout the whole year. Some teams talk about how it's a brotherhood and how they would do anything for each other. When we say that, we mean it. It's great to close out my team career on top."
Del Val, which won eight in a row to wrap up the dual season after a 34-29 loss to No. 16 Cranford on Jan. 24, also handed No. 19 Caldwell a 33-31 loss on Jan. 18.
On the adjacent mat in Non-Public B, Pope John gave Camden Catholic all it could handle in a 32-30 title-match loss. Coach Mark Piotrowsky's Lions, who dropped a 43-24 decision to the Irish on Jan. 4, did not have its best lineup in that one as the Sparta-based school tightened the gap this time with pins at 215 and 285, where Camden Catholic had previously logged falls at both weights. The top-ranked South Jersey school, which recorded its first unbeaten season in 50 years, also was able to dictate key matchups at 190 and 120 to close it out.
Tops in the state
St. Joseph-Montvale finally got its lineup together at the right time, and the result was a second Non-Public A championship and second No. 1 ranking in the final NJWWA Top 20 in the past three seasons. St. Joseph also defeated Delbarton in the 2023 Non-Public A final and finished No. 1, before Delbarton turned the tables last season.
Rumson-Fair Haven finished as the undisputed top public school and No. 5 overall after capturing its second straight Group 2 championship. The Bulldogs knocked off Southern (39-27 on Jan. 28), which won its third straight Group 5 title, North Hunterdon (52-21 on Jan. 17) and Group 3 winner Brick Memorial (32-28 on Jan. 15), as well as Phillipsburg (44-25 on Jan. 20).
| Rank | School | Record | Votes | Previous |
| 1 | St. Joseph-Montvale (8) | (14-3) | 160 | 4 |
| 2 | Delbarton | (23-4) | 152 | 1 |
| 3 | St. Peter's Prep | (16-3) | 144 | 2 |
| 4 | Christian Brothers Academy | (9-4) | 136 | 3 |
| 5 | Rumson-Fair Haven | (28-1) | 128 | 5 |
| 6 | St. John Vianney | (13-5) | 120 | 7 |
| 7 | Southern | (18-3) | 109 | 9 |
| 8 | Bergen Catholic | (11-3) | 104 | 6 |
| 9 | Camden Catholic | (17-0) | 97 | 8 |
| 10 | St. Augustine | (16-7) | 87 | 11 |
| 11 | Delsea | (21-2) | 85 | 12 |
| 12 | North Hunterdon | (17-6) | 74 | 14 |
| 13 | Phillipsburg | (17-4) | 65 | 15 |
| 14 | Mount Olive | (15-4) | 57 | 10 |
| 15 | Brick Memorial | (14-5) | 47 | 16 |
| 16 | Cranford | (20-4) | 37 | 17 |
| 17 | Delaware Valley | (19-3) | 29 | 18 |
| 18 | Pope John | (11-6) | 27 | NR |
| 19 | Caldwell | (24-2) | 20 | 20 |
| 20 | St. Joseph-Metuchen | (18-4) | 16 | 13 |
