Before we take one final look by the numbers at the 89th New Jersey State Wrestling Championships at Boardwalk Hall, let's hit some highlights, including another review of High Point ace Brian Soldano's historical run at a third state championship.
Soldano (38-0), whose accomplishments have been well documented here over his four years, was fantastic all season, but even more so during the postseason. In his march to a third state gold, the Rutgers recruit pinned 10 straight opponents -- 99 in 132 career bouts and 71 of his last 87 -- before working North Bergen's Joshua Palacio for an 11-3 major -- his 14th consecutive state tournament win -- in their title bout at 190 pounds.
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| Brian Soldano is Sussex County's 121st champ. |
In doing so, Soldano earned the Outstanding Wrestler Awards at both Region 1 and AC -- just the 21st state OW from Hunterdon-Warren-Sussex and first since Delaware Valley legend Jamie Wicks captured his second state title at 171 pounds in 1988. Soldano is the 11th from Sussex and first since former High Point coach and three-time North Carolina All-American Jan Michaels, also a two-time ACC champion, won Vernon's lone championship at 148 pounds in 1979.
The classy Soldano put his name right up there with those greats, joining Nick Francavilla (2009-11) as the only High Point wrestlers to win three titles. Pope John legend Mike Frick (1969, '71 and '72) is the only other from the county to win three in the last 50 years. Phillipsburg's John Barna (1980-82) is the only Warren County wrestler to do so, while Hunterdon County has never had a three-timer.
Three-timers are special and should be celebrated, as only 34 in New Jersey history have won at least that many. Personally, I have covered only six in 30 years, with Francavilla and Soldano as the only two in New Jersey. The four from Pennsylvania are: Northampton's Joey Ecklof, Nazareth's Tim Darling, whose father, Bob, wrestled at Hunterdon Central, and Easton's Matt Ciasulli and Jordan Oliver, the only four-time finalist in that group of six.
On another note, the tributes, both in print and the moment of silence before the finals for mat maven Ron Mazzola, who died suddenly on Monday, Feb. 21, were outstanding. Mazzola was a jack-of-all-trades in the sport and a fixture at district, region and state tournaments. He served as president of the New Jersey Wrestling Writers Association, in addition to donating the No. 1 team trophies.
As a media member, there was no better source of information. Ron was a great friend to all who has worked a beat. He will be sorely missed by all who knew and loved him.
Now, here's everything you never knew you needed to know about the 2022 state championships by the numbers:
13 --
Brian Soldano, who capped a tremendous career by
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| Soldano ended his career on a 75-match win streak. |
winning his third state championship and the Hunterdon-Warren-Sussex area's first Outstanding Wrestler Award since 1988, moved High Point's total to 13 and into a tie with Hunterdon Central for the fourth-most winners in the HWS area and 13th all-time. Brick Memorial, which had two champions in Evan Tallmadge (120) and Harvey Ludington (175), and South Plainfield also stand at 13 overall. Soldano finished with 99 career pins and at 127-5 overall, he tied former Kittatinny great Matt Valenti (127-7 from 1998-2002), a two-time state and NCAA champion at Penn, for 31st on Sussex County's career wins list (103 have hit the century mark).
40 -- Hunterdon County has produced three state championships in the last four years as Hunterdon Central's Brett Ungar and Voorhees' Lewis Fernandes, the Vikes' first two-time winner, won in 2019. The county total sits at 40, but could North Hunterdon's
Logan Wadle, who was second in 2021 and
third in '22 at 106 pounds, be the county's next gold medalist? Remarkably, it's coming up on 20 years since the Lions, who have 12 overall, had a winner. The last was one of the area's greatest as Ricky Frondorf, a four-time placewinner, went back-to-back at 152 pounds in 2002-03. Delaware Valley has not had a medalist since Kyle Lightner won the the Terriers' ninth state title in 2017. Matt Kolonia was a seventh-place finisher that season.
137 -- Warren Hills senior Tyler McCatharn repeated as a sixth-place finisher at 285 -- becoming the first two-time medal winner at heavyweight for the Blue Streaks since the great Dan Slack (third in 1976 and first in '77). McCatharn, who is heading to Bloomsburg, finished in fifth place on the school's career wins at 106-34, the most victories of any Blue Streak heavyweight and surpassing Andrew Pacheco (105-22 from 2011-15), who was the program's last semifinalist in 2014. The Streaks, who rank second on New Jersey's state champions list with 46, have not had a finalist since Justin Colaluce won his second straight title in 1998.
123 -- Hunterdon Central senior Tanner Peake closed the books on a fine career with his second state medal (fourth at 157 after a sixth-place finish in 2021) and career mark of 123-28, which is tied for seventh on the school's career list with Peter Nace (123-30 from 2013-17) and ranks 17th on the all-time Hunterdon County wins chart.
6 -- Amazingly, the five public schools to win state team championships this season combined for only six medals in Atlantic City. Group 4 champion Mount Olive and Group 3 winner Delsea each had three, while Phillipsburg (Group 5), Raritan (Group 2) and Delaware Valley (Group 1) had none. P'burg was shut out for the third straight season -- a program first -- as freshman Gavin Hawk (120) and seniors James Day (126), Joey Innamorato (138) and David Pierson (215) all fell in the Blood Round. The Hunterdon-Warren-Sussex area as a whole went 4-7 in that round.
59 -- The Non-Public schools are again a hot topic with the most medalists -- 59 (including Pope John's
Carson Walsh and
Jack Stoll, sixth at 113 and fifth at 215) out of a possible 112 -- since district and regional realignment was introduced in 2017. The Non-Public totals, which were 38 in 2016, leading up to this season were: 33 in 2017, 34 in '18, 40 in '19, 36 in '20 and 41 in '21. Of the 344 schools in New Jersey, 30 are private. That's 8.7 percent. The Non-Publics made up 49 percent of the quarterfinalists (55), 52 percent of the semifinalists (29), 46 percent of the finalists (13) and 57 percent of the champions (8).
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| The 14 state champions for 2021-22. |
25 -- Bergen Catholic senior Joseph Cangro finally broke through with his first state title at 138 pounds, decking Christian Brothers Academy junior Julian George in 3:57. Cangro, who is heading to Harvard, went third, third and second in his prior state appearances. He's the 25th champion for the Crusaders, who moved into a tie with Bound Brook for the eighth-most winners in New Jersey history. NCAA champion Mekhi Lewis, now at Virginia Tech, is the last winner for Bound Brook and Somerset County (160 pounds in 2017).
24 -- Region 2 dusted the field with 24 medals, including a tournament-best seven finalists as Boonton senior Joe Fongaro became his school's second champion and first finalist since Francis Dunn won at 140 pounds in 1992, while Laith Hamdeh became Passaic Tech's first finalist. Fongaro, whose coach is former Kittatinny standout Dave Hughen, received a hero's welcome and escort back into town. Region 8 was next with 17, but was the only region without a champion (four runners-up). Region 3 followed with 14 medals (four finalists) and matched Region 1 and Region 6 with a tournament-high three champions -- Delbarton's Tyler Vazquez (132), Andrew Troczynski (150) and Simon Ruiz (157), who pushed Morris County's title total to 80. Region 1, Region 4 and Region 7 all had 12 medalists, while Region 6 (five finalists) had 11 and Region 5 had 10.
8 -- Brick Memorial junior Anthony Santaniello and Delbarton sophomore Daniel Jones -- both 2021 winners -- were thwarted in their bids to repeat as a total of eight wrestlers who have won at least one championship could be in next year's field. St. Peter's Prep freshman Adrian DeJesus (106) is among three ninth-graders to win in 2022 -- along with St. John Vianney's Anthony Knox (113) and Brick Memorial's Harvey Ludington (175), who should be a major force in the upper weights for the next three years. Delbarton's Tyler Vazquez (132) and Simon Ruiz (157) won their first titles, while St. Joseph-Montvale stud Jim Mullen (285) -- all juniors -- won his second.
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| Boardwalk Hall has hosted 27 tournaments since 1992. |
27 -- Boardwalk Hall has been the tournament home for 27 of the last 31 years. Atlantic City has hosted 28 overall -- six more than Princeton University's Jadwin Gym (22 from 1970-91) -- as the event shifted to AC in '92. It's since been there for all but three years -- a two-year move to the Meadowlands in 2000 and '01, as Boardwalk Hall underwent renovations, and at Phillipsburg in 2021 due to the pandemic. Others sites include the Elizabeth Armory (nine times, 1947-55), Rutgers (seven from 1959-65) and Asbury Park Convention Hall (four, 1966-69). Besides Phillipsburg, there have been 10 other high school sites -- Union, Somerville, Roselle Park, Teaneck, Grover Cleveland Jr. (Elizabeth), Springfield, Thomas Jefferson, Rahway and Belvidere (1946). Union hosted the first four tournaments from 1934-37.
134 -- Bergen County is the all-time leader with 134 state champions, surpassing Union County (129) within the last five years. In 2017, Union led Bergen by 10, but Bergen Catholic, St. Joseph-Montvale and Don Bosco Prep have produced a combined 12 in the last five years. Westfield's Christian Barber (2011) is the last champ from Union County. Sussex ranks third with 121, while Warren County is fourth with 85, but has produced only four winners since 1996 (Phillipsburg's Brandon Hull was the last in 2012 and the Stateliners' 33rd overall). Morris County, which has logged 19 champions since 2017, has surged past Ocean (70), Gloucester (67) and Somerset (66) behind Delbarton, which had three winners this year in Tyler Vazquez (132), Andrew Troczynski (150) and Simon Ruiz (157), who was Morris' 80th overall. The Green Wave has produced 11 winners since 2017 and now ranks 10th on the state's all-time list with 21. Speaking of Morris, congrats to longtime Daily Record writer Joe Hofmann, the voice of wrestling in that county for decades, on receiving the John Vogeding Media Award prior to the finals. Rounding out things out are: Camden (62), Monmouth (47), Middlesex (44), Hunterdon (40), Essex (34), Burlington (26), Passaic (25), Atlantic (20), Cumberland (12), Hudson and Salem (8), and Cape May and Mercer (4).
1,086 -- Total number of state champions in New Jersey history. We will hit 1,100 next season. Bergen Catholic's Nick Suriano, an NCAA champion and now at Michigan, became No. 1,000 in winning his fourth title in 2016. This year's tournament was the 89th 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. The last winner for the Braves was current assistant coach Andy Iliff, who won his second title in 1987.
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