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No. 1 team in the state may not be able to wrestle in NJSIAA team tournament

steven falk, tom mcgurk, sean farrell and andy mendlowitz, asbury park press
·4 min read

St. Joseph (Montvale), the No. 1-ranked team in the New Jersey Wrestling Writers Association Top 20, will have to scramble in order to reach the 10 matches required to be considered for qualification in the NJSIAA team tournament.

As of Monday morning, the Green Knights have wrestled seven matches and only have two matches scheduled for this week. They wrestle at Old Tappan on Wednesday night and host No. 11 Bergen Catholic on Friday night

St. Joseph is the defending Non-Public A champion.

Ryan Burton, of St. Joseph Regional, is shown during his victorious 175 pounds match against Eddie Terreri, of Paramus Catholic, in Garfield, Sunday, January 21, 2024.
Ryan Burton, of St. Joseph Regional, is shown during his victorious 175 pounds match against Eddie Terreri, of Paramus Catholic, in Garfield, Sunday, January 21, 2024.

The regulations for the team tournament say the following:

"Teams must have wrestled at least ten (10) dual meets against NJSIAA member schools to be considered for Power Point rankings. There will be no exceptions or waivers to this rule.''

"A school has contacted the NJSIAA questioning the number of matches needed and a response has been sent to that school," NJSIAA wrestling tournament director Howie O'Neil said Monday afternoon.

O'Neil declined further comment.

St. Joseph would have already had 10 matches wrestled, but it withdrew from the Catholic School Duals at Christian Brothers Academy on Jan. 6 due to injuries and illness amongst several of its wrestlers

More: St. Joseph wrestling claws past Don Bosco even with depleted lineup

The cutoff for qualification is Saturday. The tournament will be seeded Jan. 30 and will begin Feb. 5 with the public sectional quarterfinal and semifinal matches and conclude Feb. 11 at Rutgers University's Jersey Mike's Arena, with the seven group championship matches.

The top eight teams in the final power points after head-to-head results are inputed will be seeded into the public school sections.

The two statewide non-public groups will be seeded by a committee.

Key results from last week

Among the key results from last week reflected in this week's rankings are:

Don Bosco, ranked No. 6, defeated Bergen Catholic, 32-30, for its first win over the Crusaders since 2010; Hunterdon Central, ranked No. 12, defeating No. 13 Mount Olive, 35-34, and No. 18 West Essex defeated No. 20 Seton Hall Prep, 30-23. That result enabled West Essex to enter the rankings for the first time this season.

Brick Memorial, which was ranked No. 20 last week, dropped out after a 36-27 defeat to unranked Paulsboro.

Key matches around the state this week

Tenth-ranked Phillipsburg, which is coming off the thrilling 28-27 win over arch-rival Easton (Pa.) on criteria (most pins, 2-1) in an epic match this past Saturday night, will host No. 14 Delaware Valley on Tuesday night. Delaware Valley will then host Hunterdon Central on Wednesday night.

Hunterdon Central will also wrestle No. 15 Delsea on Saturday as part of a quad-meet it is hosting.

Also Wednesday night: No. 2 Delbarton will make the trip to No. 5 Southern for the second straight season and No. 9 St. John Vianney will host No. 19 Rumson-Fair Haven in the match that will decide the Shore Conference Class A Central championship.

Several county tournaments will take place this weekend, including the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament, the Morris County Tournament and the Mercer County Tournament.

Here is this week's NJWWA Top 20 with record and first place votes in parentheses followed by total voting points.

NJWWA voting members in alphabetical order: Donald J. Brower (gardenstatehswrestling.com); Frank D'Esposito (shoreconferencewrestling.com); Steven Falk (Asbury Park Press and app.com); Sean Farrell (The Record and NorthJersey.com); Tom McGurk (Courier Post and courierpostonline.com); Andy Mendlowitz (Home News Tribune, Courier News and MyCentralJersey.com); Michael Weilaman (Open Mike and mikeopen.blogspot.com); Brad Wilson (lehighvalleylive.com/The Express Times

1. St. Joseph (Montvale) (7-0) (7) 159

2. Delbarton (9-3) (1) 154

3. St. Peter's Prep (6-4) 144

4. Christian Brothers Academy (7-1) 136

5. Southern (8-1) 127

6. Don Bosco Prep (9-3) 116

7. Paramus Catholic (6-2) 109

8. Camden Catholic (8-1) 108

9. St. John Vianney (7-0) 93

10. Phillipsburg (11-0) 91

11. Bergen Catholic (5-5) 78

12. Hunterdon Central (13-1) 74

13. Mount Olive (11-3) 65

14. Delaware Valley (10-0) 59

15. Delsea (9-2) 48

16. St. Joseph (Metuchen) (12-3) 36

17. Cranford (10-1) 26

18. West Essex (12-0) 20

19. Rumson-Fair Haven (8-0) 18

20. Seton Hall Prep (7-3) 13

Also receiving votes: West Deptford (13-1) (4), Kittatinny (12-1) (3).

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: NJ Wrestling state rankings: No. 1 St. Joseph may be out of team tourney