Delbarton was one of the nation’s best a season ago and come into this season again among the nation’s top 10. The difference I suppose is that they were the top ranked New Jersey school until a loss to St Joe’s Regional late last Winter. This season, SJR enters slightly ahead of them in the Mat Scouts Fab 50, 7th to 9th. While they return a lot, they do lose two state champions in Tyler Vazquez and Simon Ruiz. 

Still on the squad are a pair of state champions, Alessio Perentin and Louie Cerchio. And then a slew of placers and hopefuls. Newcomer Cam Sontz is one of the nation’s best at 106. He’s our top ranked from the state, but New Jersey should be pretty strong at that weight so we’ll see how it plays out.

So, coming to the HOF Duals, they were the favorite to win Pool D. A group that included Colorado power Pomona, one of Illinois best teams in Joliet Catholic (in the state of Illinois competing at the 3A level for the first time in school history), and perennial top 10 team Lake Highland Prep. And they took care of business in pool action, finishing 3-0 and earning a spot in the GOLD bracket on day 2. 

While their closest result in day was still +29 points, day 2 would present a whole different set of challenges. They faced #1 in the country Wyoming Seminary in the semifinals and then #5 Poway from California. 

The dual with Sem was definitely highly anticipated, even though they have a dual with them coming up later this season. Buchanan and Clovis also have a dual against each other so they were separated on day 2, even though Clovis earned a spot in the SILVER bracket. I mention that only to say I thought maybe Sem and Delbarton would ask for the same thing. They didn’t, so I’d say we got a fair preview of what’s to come later. However, like most previews, it wasn’t the complete story. Delbarton was without Sophomore Jayden James and Sem was similarly without Vince Bouzakis and Joe Sealey. 

We still got 3 highly anticipated nationally ranked match ups. At 106, Shamus Regan vs Cam Sontz. At 120, Nate Desmond vs Dan Jones. And at 175, Dom Federici vs Louie Cerchio. Interestingly enough, only the 120 result fell to the higher ranked wrestler. Sontz was able to avenge an earlier loss to Regan and Federici pulled off a nice “upset” in an OT thriller. No telling how these go in round 2.

One of the more intriguing individual matches will be Sealey vs Perentin at 165. We didn’t get that this time, but should in January.

All in all, I think there’s some good things from this one to take away for the Green Wave. In particular performances from Ryan DeGeorge at 126 and Gabe Logan at 150. They went a combined 9-1 and could be ready for that 2nd dual where they are expected to face Luke Lilledahl and Bouzakis respectively. Big Sem favorites going in but perhaps they’ll build off this and shock the world.

You can see all the box scores below!