West Jersey remains state’s deepest area in wrestling
The top two public school wrestling teams (Southern and Delsea) were from South Jersey this year, but as Sunday’s group championships showed, the deepest part of the state remains in the so-called West Jersey area.
We’re talking about the teams from Hunterdon, Warren and Sussex counties, which managed to produce three champions and two runner-ups at Rutgers University.
Winning state titles from this area were Delaware Valley (Group I), High Point’s remarkable Hillbillies (Group II) and North Hunterdon (Group IV). In the second spots were Phillipsburg (Group V behind Southern) and Warren Hills (Group III behind Delsea).
What many people can’t seem to comprehend is this is even more impressive when you consider there’s a very limited amount of teams from this area.
Hunterdon County had two champs with DelVal and North Hunterdon, but there are only four teams in the entire county. (This will change shortly when South Hunterdon begins wrestling varsity again under the guidance of Leigh “Holiday Jacks” Hall.)
In addition to the four Hunterdon teams, Sussex and Warren counties have just 14 teams, making for a combined 18 in “West Jersey.”
Compare this to the Shore Conference, which has well over double the amount of those teams in its area alone. All the Shore Conference had to show at this year’s groups was one first (Southern in Group V) and one second Jackson Memorial (in Group IV).
And while South Jersey had the two champs, considering this area includes eight counties and so many different teams, you’d need a whole day to count all of them up.
Putting all that aside, here’s a quick look back at sections and groups:
GROUP I
By capturing its 10th state championship, Delaware Valley moved into the sixth spot on the all-time list of group champions and fourth among public schools. Coach Andy Fitz can also now claim he has won backto-back groups as both a coach and wrestler at DelVal.
Delaware Valley can also claim it now has a winning record against Cough City with a 4-3-1 record against Paulsboro. Suffice it to say there are very few teams in the state that can claim that.
DelVal could very well have won the final against Paulsboro by more points, but chose the safe route to make sure it banked the wins it figured was coming its way.
Whatever, the loss did not go well over with some of the Paulsboro coaches, who showed a total lack of sportsmanship following the match. There will be a lot more on that in The Trentonian’ season-ending Slammies that appear the Tuesday after states.
By the way, the state charged something like $17 to park and $15 for a ticket to attend groups.
That’s outrageous. Where was Paulsboro’s state politician John Burzichelli when you need him?
GROUP II
High Point’s seventh group championship was an amazing story considering the Hillbillies entered sectionals with a record of 7-9.
Defending champion Raritan was considered the favorite, but prior to the group semis the word was out that Rocket coach Rob Nucci was worried about how his team matched up with Governor Livingston. Unfortunately, from a Raritan perspective, this fear proved to be entirely correct.
While this was far from one of High Point’s better teams, it should be pointed out its nine
losses came against a brutal schedule that is always among the toughest in the state.
“We try to put our wrestlers in difficult situations that make them uncomfortable,” said High Point’s classy coach John Gardner. “That’s how we do it here to get them prepared for something like this.”
GROUP III
In a rematch from last year’s final, Delsea beat Warren Hills for the second time this year. Both results were by similar and comfortable margins.
Warren Hills probably should have won it last year, but this time Delsea was a cut above. While it’s true the Crusaders (26-1) were not as good as Southern, they clearly were better than any other public school team in the state.
GROUP IV
This was the one group that appeared wide open, and it was North Hunterdon emerging on top for its sixth group title with a win over Jackson Memorial, which clearly became a much better team at the end of the year once it got healthy.
This was also a feel-good story because North Hunterdon had to rely on some largely-unheralded wrestlers to get the job done.
One of those was John Van Doren, who locked up the win over Jackson with a quick sudden victory takedown. Amazingly, Van Doren took to the mat with an 0-3 record and was not expected to be in the Lion lineup.
The Van Doren name is legendary in North Hunterdon
wrestling lore. John Van Doren’s father Michael was a state champion in 1988, and his grandfather Jack was third in the state.
“My grandfather told me whenever you go to overtime to shoot right away,” said John Van Doren. “I did just what he told me to do.”
GROUP V
Southern easily beat Phillipsburg in the final for the second time this year, and both of those victories were in very similar fashion. Don’t expect this to anytime soon. Southern has a significant number of underclassmen in its lineup, and the program is really cooking.
There was some good action prior in the Group V sectionals. For instance, Old Bridge had one of its best teams in years and barely lost to Hunterdon Central.
Hunterdon Central, in turn, barely lost to Howell in a wild match that ended with the Red Devils questioning the weight eligibility of a Rebel wrestler who didn’t even compete in the match.
Huh?