Wrestling: Weiss puts Sparta on championship map

There was certainly no shortage of history-making wins for the Hunterdon-Warren-Sussex area on Saturday at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.

In addition to Logan Wadle becoming North Hunterdon's 13th state champion and its first in 20 years, Sparta freshman Paige Weiss became her school's first female champ and Sussex County's second with a 7-6 win over Theresa Zeppetelli of Bogota/Ridgefield Park at 100 pounds in the the fifth New Jersey girls state championships.

Weiss (19-3), who went 12-7 for the boys team, put Zeppetelli on her back twice, including a five-point move as she stepped over a takedown attempt by Zeppetelli in the first period that helped Weiss join High Point's Noelle Gaffney (165 in 2022) as the county's lone female champs and Sparta's first since John Place became the school's third male winner at 188 pounds in 1983.

Zeppetelli (17-5), a senior, did her best to spoil the party, with a pair of takedowns in the second period, the latter with just five seconds left on the clock to make it 6-4. She gave Weiss an escape to start the third period and got another takedown to make it a one-point deficit. Zeppetelli tried to cut Weiss loose with 34 seconds left in order to try for a tying takedown, but Weiss fought it off, and Zeppetelli had to try for a turn on top. She nearly succeeded, applying a power-half to close out the final 10 seconds.

Zaku-Ramos and Weiss on the podium.

Weiss may have been a leading candidate for the Outstanding Wrestler Award -- beating a pair of state champions to reach the finals as only the finalists moved on from Phillipsburg High School to Atlantic City. But the OW deservedly went to Bloomfield's Kira Pipkins, who dominated Newton-Kittatinny junior and two-time placer Liliana Zaku-Ramos in an 11-1 victory in the title bout at 132 pounds to become New Jersey's first four-time girls champion. Pipkins (23-0), who is also the state's all-time female wins leader at 106-9 overall, received a commemorative plaque for her historic achievement.

Pipkins, who is heading to Columbia University, hit a five-pointer with a standing cradle, one that awkwardly bent Zaku-Ramos to her back, in the opening period and never looked back. But Zaku-Ramos, who was third at 107 last season, made history by becoming the newly unified Newton-Kittatinny program's first finalist.

Six other girls from the HWS area earned medals (raising the tri-county overall total to 44) the previous weekend at Phillipsburg High School, including a pair from Newton-Kittatinny in Gianna Simeone (eighth at 107) and Kailin Lee (fifth at 165).

Vernon picked up its second and third medals as two-time placewinner and sophomore Caitlin Hart finished third at 185 after taking fifth a year ago, while senior Allison Brandt was fourth at 235 under Ashley Iliff, a former Newton wrestler and the daughter of two-time Braves champion Andy Iliff (1986-87), who still holds the distinction of being the school's state-record 82nd and last gold medalist. Ashley was named North 1 Region Coach of the Year.

Warren Hills junior Olivia Raia gave her school its fifth medal overall with a fourth-place finish at 185, while High Point senior Carney Wyble (sixth in 2022) secured her second medal and the school's HWS-leading 12th with an eighth-place finish at 138.

Hunterdon Central, which has five placewinners, including the county's first girls champion and lone two-time winner Stephanie Andrade (2019-20), was shut out on the medal stand for the first time.