Sunday, February 25, 2024

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 91st State Championships at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City (Thursday-Saturday), let's take a look at some of the highlights from the four region tournaments that house teams from the Hunterdon-Warren-Sussex area.

Boardwalk Hall awaits for 41 wrestlers from HWS
We had champions from Sussex and Warren counties make history at their respective schools, while the annual debate over Non-Public dominance keeps growing louder with each passing season. Stay tuned on more of that in the offseason as coaches sort out the district alignments -- which now reshuffle after each season rather than every two years -- for 2024-25.

As you can expect, sending Delbarton (10 champions, 11 finalists in Region 5) and St. Peter's Prep (five champs, six runners-up in Region 6) southward was not well received by the folks down there as they got a taste of what the northern regions had to contend with during the first six seasons of realignment. However, the desired effect bears out after crunching the numbers.

Public vs. Non-Public

One major change to the current realignment was spreading out the Non-Public powers up north across Regions 1-6 in the hopes of creating a more balanced field. Mission accomplished.

Non-Public schools accounted for 136 (69 in Regions 1-4 and 67 in Regions 5-8) of the total 448 qualifiers for the state tournament. Compare with last season as Non-Public schools produced 86 in Regions 1-4 to just 53 in Regions 5-8. Non-Publics produced 18 (down from 28) of the 56 qualifiers in Region 1 and 18 (down from 26) in Region 2. 

Here's the breakdown in all regions: R1=18; R2=18; R3=17; R4=16; R5=17; R6=17; R7=19 and R8=14. 

Here are the Non-Public champion totals in all eight: R1=6; R2=10 (all from St. Joseph-Montvale); R3=7; R4=5; R5=11 (10 from Delbarton); R6=7; R7=6; R8=5. As you can see, much more evenly distributed across the state.

Last year's totals were just the opposite: R1=13; R2=11; R3=8; R4=6; R5=7; R6=7; R7=5; R8=7. 

Now, a recap of Regions 1-4:  

40 -- We have that many wrestlers from the HWS area moving on to this week's state tournament (down six from 2023). In all, 13 advanced out of Region 3, while Region 1 and Region 4 each produced 10. Over in Region 2, Phillipsburg sent an area-best seven as did Delaware Valley in Region 3. Here are the total number of area qualifiers since realignment in 2017 -- 47 in '17, 48 in '18, 50 in '19, 37 in '20, 49 in '22, 46 in '23 and 40 in '24. 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 2022 and '23.

Hawk is tied for 15th on the P'burg career wins list

7 -- Phillipsburg advanced seven out of Region 2 at Mount Olive, but the Stateliners went 0-4 in the championship round as junior Gavin Hawk (150) and senior John Wargo (285) were looking to be repeat champs. P'burg was shut out in the finals for just the seventh time since 2000 and the 11th overall in program history since regions formed in 1961. Hawk (34-2) suffered his first in-state loss -- 3-1 in TB2 after yielding a reversal to St. Joseph-Montvale's Zach Ballante, a state placewinner and region champion for Paramus Catholic last season, in the first 30-second tiebreaker. Wargo (31-2), a returning state medalist at heavyweight who was bidding to become just the seventh (and first heavyweight) to win three region titles for the 'Liners, surrendered five takedowns in a 10-4 loss to St.. Joseph-Montvale's Rocco Dellagatta. Wargo, now with 98 career wins, got in deep on a single-leg attempt early in the first-period, but Dellagata, who placed fourth at 175 in last year's state tournament and wrestles like a middleweight, fought it off and never looked back. Also punching tickets to AC were Owen Garriques (120), Gavin Geleta (132), Luke Geleta (144), Liam Packer (175) and Nathan Smith (215). Speaking of the Geleta brothers, they became the first siblings for P'burg to win district titles in the same season since 1982 (John and Mike Barna). The only others to do so were Kelly and Kevin Happel ('79), along with Rick and Jack Thompson ('70). Luke Geleta heads to AC needing one victory to join the school's 100-wins club. Hawk (106-18) passed Rylan Watson (106-41 from 2007-11) for 14th place on the school's all-time list.

107 -- Hunterdon Central produced three champions for the first time since 2010 as sophomore Rhett Washleski (36-3 at 150) and senior Thomas Brunetti (39-0 at 175) won their second titles as the Red Devils competed in Region 4 at Union High School. Star senior Anthony Rossi (38-0 at 120), now a four-time state qualifier, won his first region championship in giving the Red Devils a total of 107 region winners in the program's illustrious history. In doing so, Washleski one-upped his older brother, Colton, a two-time state placewinner (fourth in 2021, sixth in '20) who won his lone Region 5 title at 145 in '20. Rhett is also the first at Central to win region titles in his first two seasons since former state champ Brett Ungar (2018-19). Three-time state runner-up Gary Dinmore (2011-14) is the only four-time region champ for the Red Devils. Also moving onto the state tournament was senior William Cella (34-8 at 144), a third-place finisher and two-time state qualifier. Brunetti, who was voted the OW in Tegion 4, heads to AC with 98 career wins, while Rossi moved past Jack Bauer (119) for sole possession of ninth place on the school's all-time wins list at 120-15.

Dacunto on top of the podium in District 4
3 -- North Warren senior James Dacunto (36-1 at 157) made history for the Patriots by becoming just the third champion in program history with his title run in Region 1 at West Milford. Dacunto, who recently became just the 19th district champ for the Warren County school, was the first region medalist under sixth-year coach Kellen Bradley a year ago with a fourth-place finish at this weight. Joe Casella (160 in 2001) and Kevin Brown (152 in 2009), a three-time state placewinner, are the only other region champs for North Warren. Sophomore Conor Hallowich (26-13), who took fourth at 106, made it two state qualifiers under Bradley for the first time in his tenure. Two district golds in the same tournament were also a first at North Warren since 1999.

13 -- In all, Warren County sent a baker's dozen to AC as Warren Hills produced two first-time champions at Region 1 in sophomore Augie Szamreta (29-6 at 106) and senior Josh Lee (27-3 at 138) -- Nos. 60 and 61 overall for the Blue Streaks, who had two winners for the first time since 2015 (Max Nauta and Andrew Pacheco). Lee, a two-time state qualifier with 89 career vicrories, scored a 7-4 win over highly-regarded Lakeland junior Ryan Langenmayr (34-5) -- avenging a 3-0 loss in their District 2 championship match encounter a week earlier. Hills junior Charlie Piccione (29-8 at 120), a fifth-place finisher in Region 1, will make his second trip to AC as an injury replacement. Hackettstown senior Nicolas Balella (32-7 at 132), a runner-up, and Belvidere junior Kyle Blew (36-6 at 190), a fourth-place finisher, also advanced out of Region 3 at West Orange. Balella knocked off returning Delaware Valley state placewinner Matt Roche, 9-3, in the semifinals for his 90th career win before dropping a 12-1 major to Pope John star Carson Walsh in the finals. Roche, who was an eighth-place medalist in 2023, did not advance.  

17 -- Hunterdon County advanced an area-best 17 wrestlers to Atlantic City, including five from North Hunterdon in sophomore Reid Buzby (27-7 at 106), freshman Aidan Yarussi (29-11 at 113), seniors Shane Wysocki (18-20 at 126) and Brian Wilson (23-10 at 165) and junior Evan Kinney (21-16 at 175), as the Lions did not have a champ for the first time since 2020 and the 11th since 2004. Voorhees senior Logan Wiecoreck (37-3) won a Region 4 title at 157 pounds -- his first and the program's first since Lewis Fernandes went back-to-back at 285 in 2018-19. Kyle DiNapoli (2016) is the school's only other winner since 2014, as The Vikes now have 38 titles overall since the program formed in 1975. Voorhees has had at least one state qualifier in all but five of its 49 seasons (2002, '03, '20, '21, '22).

45 -- Delaware Valley led Hunterdon County with seven state qualifiers, including junior Jaden Perez (35-1 at 126), who avenged his only loss this season with a 10-9 win over Pope John sophomore Dalton Weber, a returning champ, in the Region 3 finals. Weber had previously scored a 16-9 decision over Perez in a wildly entertaining Hunterdon-Warren-Sussex Tournament final on Jan. 10. Perez is the school's 45th region champ overall and first since 2018 (AJ DeRosa at 126 in Region 5). Also moving on for the Terriers are seniors Jake Taylor (26-7 at 113), Ben Levy (29-6 at 150), Mitchell Sutter (30-8 at 157), Kevin Roman (29-7 at 175) and Anderson Olcott (32-3 at 190), who earned his 90th career win, as well as junior Jackson Bush (29-6 at 138) -- all third-place medalists in Region 3.

4 -- Pope John advanced a Sussex County-best four out of Region 3, including stellar junior Carson Walsh (34-3 at 132), a two-time state medalist who raised the program's total to 39 and joined former state champs Mike Frick (1969-72), JoJo Aragona (2016-19) and Eddie Ventresca (2017, '19, '20) as the only Lions to win three or more region titles. Frick and Aragona are among just eight HWS area wrestlers to win four as the Sussex County school extended its string with at least one winner to nine straight seasons. Joining Walsh in AC are sophomore Dalton Weber (32-4 at 126), a runner-up and champ in 2023, along with junior Jake Holly (29-7 at 106) and senior Justin Holly (27-7 at 138), also a runner-up for the second straight season.

Clayton (right) is High Point's 51st region champ
10 -- High Point junior Nick Clayton (27-6 at 132) continued his superb postseason run by capturing his first Region 1 title with three one-point decision wins (including 1-0 victory over No. 1 seed Santino Danise of Don Bosco Prep in the semis) after a fourth-place finish in 2023. Clayton, one of 10 from Sussex County to earn region medals, is the lone qualifier for the 'Cats, who didn't have a champ for just the fifth time since 2005 a year ago. Kittatinny sent three to AC as seniors Reece Smith (36-5 at 150, fourth), Ethan Dalling (35-3 at 165, second) and Bryce Coesfeld (34-5 at 175, third) advanced in Region 1, but the Cougars have not produced a region champ since Austin Scrivani (138 in 2016). Coesfeld left Region 1 sitting on 99 career wins, while Dalling picked up his 93rd in the semifinals. Sparta junior Logan Hrenenko (30-10 at 138) finished fourth for a second straight season as the Spartans are still seeking their first champ since 2006, while Newton senior Joey Catalano (21-9 at 144) earned his first trip to AC with a fourth-place medal. It's a shame that Catalano, who was 5-7 as a freshman and came up through the rec program, took two years away from the sport, but it's a nice comeback story. Vernon sophomore True DiGiuseppe (32-5, fifth at 175) came up short in his bid to become the Vikes' first state qualifier since Brian Hoyt finished second in Region 1 in 2007.

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