Sunday, February 27, 2022

Wrestling: Region recap for HWS by the numbers

We're near the finish line of the high school wrestling season, but before we turn our focus on the 89th State Championships at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, starting on Thursday, let's take a look at some of the highlights from the five region tournaments that house teams from the Hunterdon-Warren-Sussex area.

North crowned an area-best 4 champions in the Lions' Den.
But before we do, kudos to North Hunterdon, which did a fantastic job of hosting a region event for the first time in program history as Union High School was unavailable. Region 4 went off without a hitch and completed both rounds on Friday in lightning fashion (just over three hours). Region 2 at Mount Olive and Region 3 at West Orange continued to be excellent hosts, as all three took the time to break things down for finals on one mat, as it should be. West Orange always showcases the finals and adds the nice touch of a matside podium to recognize the placewinners between championship bouts.

That's in stark contrast to West Milford, which runs Region 1 just to get it done. Using three mats for finals and the third- and fifth-place matches -- something the Passaic County School has done as host since 2018 -- is a disservice to the sport. Oh, they have a podium for placewinners, but it's tucked in a corner of one section of bleachers and not visible to the entire gym. Sunday's consolation semis began at 9 a.m., leaving plenty of time to do it right. Instead it was another missed opportunity. 

The podium at North, which was built prior to the event.
One other note, Non-Public schools were atop the Track team standings in all but one, as Delsea ruled in Region 8. Region 1 was dominated by St. Joseph-Montvale with a ridiculous 10 champions and 12 finalists, while Bergen Catholic (seven champs, four runners-up) sat atop Region 2. In Region 3, Delbarton, which went 6-2 in the finals, advanced 11 of 13, St. Peter's Prep (five champs and three runners-up) bested the Region 4 field, while St. John Vianney (three champs and six finalists) stood out in Region 5. 

Here are the Non-Public champs totals in all eight: 11 in R1, 8 in R2, 6 in R3, 6 in R4, 6 in R5, 7 in R6 (all from CBA), 4 in R7, 2 in R8. This only reaffirms what we've known all along -- the Non-Publics are dominating in North Jersey, more so than the rest of the state. Realignment, which has failed miserably in a number of aspects, including watering down districts and regions, has not solved that Non-Public issue in the northern regions, primarily because the balance of power among the private schools fluctuates more often than in the public ranks. You can expect the cries for an All-Non-Public region to get louder this offseason. 

Now, a recap of Regions 1-5:  

49 -- We have that many wrestlers from the HWS area moving on to this week's state tournament (up 12 from 2020 before last year's pandemic-induced super regions), including an area-high eight each from Phillipsburg and Warren Hills. In all, 18 advanced out of Region 3, while Region 1 produced 12. Over in Region 4, Delaware Valley and North Hunterdon (area-best four champions) combined for 11 qualifiers, while Region 5 had six from Hunterdon Central, leaving one wrestler from Lenape Valley (senior Daniel Haws) and Hopatcong (senior Michael Mastroeni) to come out of Region 2. Here are the total number of area qualifiers since realignment in 2017 -- 47 in '17, 48, in '18, 50 in '19, 37 in '20 and 49 in '22. We had 22 a year ago from the Super Regions. As a side note, there have been 10 state medal winners who finished fourth in the regions (not including 2021) and four were from the HWS area -- North Hunterdon's Andrew Gapas (eighth at 132) in 2017, High Point's Brandon LaRue (sixth at 113) and Pope John's Reece Mulduun (seventh at 182) in 2018 and Sparta's Spencer Stewart (eighth at 120) in 2019. There were none in 2020.

50 -- The most noteworthy happening from an HWS standpoint in Region 1 was High Point senior 
Gardner, Soldano and Francavilla. (Courtesy of Cheryl Soldano)
Brian Soldano winning his fourth title. The two-time state champion steamrolled his way through the bracket at 190 pounds and earned the Outstanding Wrestler Award with three pins a total time of 1:35. Soldano (33-0) became the first Sussex County wrestler to pin his way to four titles -- going 13-0, including four falls in last year's North 1 Super Region, with seven under a minute. Soldano, now 122-5 overall with 95 career pins (29 this season), joined head coach John Gardner (1987-90) and Nick Francavilla (2008-11) as the only
four-time region champions for the 'Cats, who have 50 region champions in their history. Pope John's Mike Frick (1969-72) and JoJo Aragona (2016-19) are the only other Sussex County wrestlers to win four. Soldano is High Point's only champ since Kevin Lewis won at 285 in 2016. From 2007-16, the 'Cats crowned 28 champions. Senior Clayton Utter (third at 120) earned his fourth trip to states and is 94-25 overall, while senior Andrew Brevot (fourth at 138) will make his first appearance in AC.

7 -- Speaking of Pope John, super freshman Carson Walsh logged three pins in winning the title at 113 pounds in Region 1 to become the Lions' 36th region champ and extending the program's string with at least one winner to seven straight seasons. Senior Colin Neal was a runner-up at 150, while sophomore Justin Holly (132) and senior Jack Stoll (215) finished third to punch their tickets to AC. Stoll's father, Joe, was a region champion for Vernon at heavyweight in 1984, while older brother, Kyle, was a two-time winner for High Point at 195 pounds in 2013-14.

P'burg has 130 region champions overall.
8 -- Phillipsburg advanced eight wrestlers to the state tournament for the first time since 1998 (when only three qualified from each of the eight regions) as senior David Pierson (215) won his second title and sophomore John Wargo (285) got his first (No. 130 for the Warren County school). Pierson (32-4), who is the Stateliners' first repeat winner since Brian Meyer won three (2016-18) in a row, fought off a single-leg attempt by Warren Hills' Jarett Pantuso and converted a takedown of his own with 10 seconds left for a 3-2 win in the title bout. A fitting result as Pierson now owns a 3-2 lead in their back-and-forth rivalry dating to last season. Pierson has won both region encounters (8-0 in last year's North 1 semis) and their clash in the Hunterdon-Warren-Sussex finals (7-1 this season), while Pantuso prevailed in rematches (9-6 in the Blood Round of last year's state tournament and 1-0 in this season's dual meet). Wargo, a No. 8 seed, won for the first time in three meetings with Blue Streaks state placewinner Tyler McCatharn, scoring a 2-1 win in overtime in the quarterfinals. McCatharn, who finished third, had beaten Wargo, 9-2, in the HWS Tournament semis and 5-1 in the dual meet. Freshmen Gavin Hawk (120) and Luke Geleta (132) and senior James Day (126) all finished second, while senior Joe Innamorato (138) and junior Hunter Cleaver (157) placed third and senior Nate Zastowny (165) fourth. P'burg, which finished as the top public school in both the NJWWA Top 20 and Coaches Top 25, went 4-2 vs. Warren Hills over the two-day event.
  
58 -- Warren Hills senior Stephen Malia raised the program total to 58 region champions with his first at 165 pounds in Region 3. Malia (33-1), who has 87 career wins, is the Blue Streaks' first winner at a weight other than 285 since Max Nauta (132) won his second title in 2015. Senior Jared Lee (144) and junior Jarett Pantuso (215) were runners-up, while seniors Kevin Riedinger (fourth at 113) and Owen Frizzell (third at 175), Ryan Galka (fourth at 190) and Tyler McCatharn (third at 285), and junior Shawn Redfield (third at 132), also advanced to the state tournament. The Streaks' eight qualifiers are the most since a program-record nine in 1939 and '47, when they were Washington High School and only district champions advanced to states (regions were introduced in 1961 and only winners moved on from there until 1974). McCatharn (33-4), who finished sixth in the state in 2021, became the ninth member of the school's 100-wins club with his victory in the consolation semifinals and is 101-31 overall.

4 -- North Hunterdon produced four champions for just the second time and first since 1985 as juniors Logan Wadle (106), Alex Uryniak (190) and Brendan Raley (215) won their first titles and senior Liam Akers (285) won his second. Wadle, who earned the Outstanding Wrestler Award, escaped at the buzzer for a 7-6 win over Adrian DeJesus of St. Peters Prep, who won by fall in 5:34 against the 2021 state runner-up in their dual meet encounter at 113 pounds on Dec. 23. Wadle also gave his household a fourth title as his father, Rudy, won three Region 5 crowns (1991-93) and is among just five Lions to win at least three. North, which finished 17th in the Coaches Association Top 25, sent seven total to AC as senior Nick DeLorenzo (third at 132), junior Daniel Delusant (fourth at 138) and senior Luke Yager (third at 175) qualified for the first time. Two-time state champion Ricky Frondorf, now a youth coach and the Lions' only four-time region champ, was in attendance on Saturday. Gary Bendel (122) and Tom McGourty (158), both state champs, were among the four Region 5 champs for North in '85, along with Stan Barber (170) and Jim Abbott (heavyweight).

18 -- Warren County advanced an area-best 18 wrestlers to Atlantic City, as Hackettstown's Aidan Scheeringa (fourth at 106) and Nicholas Balella (third at 120), who missed mot of the season with an injury, joined the combined 16 from Phillipsburg and Warren Hills. The Tigers have not had a champion since Alex Carida (145), a two-time winner, and Joe Andes (285) won in 2018. Belvidere (R3) and North Warren (R1) were shut out.

17 -- Hunterdon County sent 17 to the state tournament. In addition to North Hunterdon's county-best seven, Hunterdon Central produced six qualifiers out of Region 5, while Delaware Valley moved four from Region 4. Senior Tanner Peake (157) and sophomore Thomas Brunetti (165) won their first titles for Central, which has 103 champions overall, won their first titles. Peake (36-4), who placed sixth in last year's state tournament, scored a 4-3 decision over St. John Vianney's Jasiah Queen to avenge a 3-2 UTB loss in their District 17 final and move into a tie with Jack Bauer for eighth place on Central's career wins list with 119. Sophomore Anthony Rossi (106) and senior Nick Canonica (150) were runners-up, while junior Peter Plesh (113) and senior Aidan Portnoy (144) finished fourth for the Red Devils.  Juniors Owen Kucharski (106) and Chris Colasurdo (150) and seniors Matt Schneider (190) and Trevor Bowen (215) all finished fourth for Group 1 champion Del Val, which snapped a two-year skid without a qualifier and has not had a champ since 2018 and only two since 2014. Voorhees, which produced its first winning season since 2019, did not have a state qualifier for the third straight year and only the fifth time in program history. The only other years the Vikes missed on at least one state qualifier were in 2002 and '03.

14 -- Sussex County moved 14 on to Atlantic City as Kittatinny, which had one finalist in senior Ty Eldred (285) and has not produced a champion since 2016 (Austin Scrivani at 138 pounds), had three qualifiers in Region 1. Joining Eldred, who lost by technical fall to 2020 state champion Jim Mullen of St. Joseph-Montvale, are senior Steve Dalling (150) and freshman Ethan Dalling (165), who were third-place finishers. Newton, which has 40 region champions in its history, did not have a finalist (last year's North 1 Super Region aside) for the first time since 2017, but the Braves had two state qualifiers in junior Michael Melillo (third at 138) and senior Melkart Abou-Jaoude (fourth at 190). In Region 2, Lenape Valley's Daniel Haws, a runner-up at 126 and 105-24 overall, earned his third trip to states and passed Matt Moscatello for 11th place on the school's all-time wins list, while Hopatcong's Michael Mastroeni, third at 165, also advanced.

6 -- Phillipsburg, the Group 5 champion, was voted the top public school and No. 3 in the state in the always politically-biased New Jersey Coaches Association Top 25, which was released on Sunday afternoon. In all, six teams from the Hunterdon-Warren-Sussex area graced the rankings as Group 3 runner-up Warren Hills was No. 10, three spots ahead of Delsea despite a 29-28 loss to the Crusaders in the state final. North Hunterdon checked in at No. 17 and Hunterdon Central at No. 19, followed by Group 1 champion Delaware Valley at No. 21 and Group 2 runner-up High Point at No. 24.
Posted by Mike Weilamann at 7:59 PM

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