St. John Vianney rolls past CBA to finish third at Catholic School Duals, eyes rematch with Delbarton

MIDDLETOWN — Several of the best high school wrestling teams in New Jersey assembled at Christian Brothers Academy on Friday and Saturday for the second annual Catholic School Duals. Fans were able to watch multiple state champions and nationally-ranked wrestlers and get a glimpse of what’s to come at February’s NJSIAA Team Championships.

For the Shore Conference’s three entrants – St. John Vianney, CBA and Red Bank Catholic – they found out exactly where they stand in their respective quests for a state championship, while also making some statements of their own.

St. John Vianney stamped itself as the Shore Conference’s team to beat by finishing third, walloping a short-handed CBA squad 49-25 in the third-place match. The Lancers fell to the state’s No. 1 team and reigning Non-Public A champion Delbarton, 47-17, in the semifinals, while CBA was defeated by St. Peter’s Prep, 57-14, in the other semifinal. The Green Wave flexed their muscles by winning 11 bouts in a 50-12 win over the Marauders in the championship match.

On Friday, CBA upended state No. 2 St. Joseph (Montvale) on criteria for a huge win in a match were both teams were missing multiple starters.

Red Bank Catholic went 1-2 on Day 1 of the tournament with losses to CBA and St. Joe’s but rebounded on Saturday with a 37-32 win over state-ranked Seton Hall Prep.

Let’s break down what it all means for the Shore Conference teams.

 

St. John Vianney rolls over CBA, eyes rematch with Delbarton

A loaded Shore Conference Class A Division will eventually determine the No. 1 team in the Shore with St. John Vianney, CBA, Southern, Rumson-Fair Haven and Brick Memorial duking it out over the next four weeks.

The Lancers have the early leg up after an impressive 24-point win over rival CBA in the third-place match. Vianney won the first five bouts and nine of 14 to put away the rival Colts. The match was an appetizer for the main course on January 15 when the Colts will host the Lancers in the divisional dual.

“Rival is an understatement,” said St. John Vianney senior Anthony Knox, the nation’s No. 1-ranked 126-pounder who is committed to Cornell. “I don’t really like them, and it’s nothing personal but at the end of the day it is a little bit. I don’t want to lose to them. It was good we beat them up a little bit but they’re a smart team and a good team and they’re going to have some moves when it comes time.”

CBA was without four starters with Bobby Duffy (132), Brock Oizerowitz (175), Tyler Palumbo (215) and Jacob Howland (285) out of the lineup, but the Lancers’ victory was thorough enough to leave no doubt for now.

More important for the Lancers was getting a feel for a Delbarton squad that everyone else in Non-Public A is chasing. St. John Vianney won last season’s Non-Public B title with a thrilling win over Camden Catholic but was realigned to Non-Public A this season. Delbarton won 10 of 14 bouts in a 47-17 victory.

“Not the way we wanted against Delbarton,” SJV head coach Chris Notte said. “The little things, end-of-period points we gave up, but overall we kept working. As long as you’re giving effort, I’m happy. Delbarton is a better team right now. Hopefully we can get better and close the distance when the time is necessary.”

There’s plenty of heavy lifting to do against the Green Wave and almost everything would have to go St. John Vianney’s way to win a rematch, but Knox sees a path and multiple areas they can improve on.

“I thought the second match (CBA) as a group we wrestled well. I thought the first match we wrestled was terrible,” Knox said. “It’s the little things that make a big difference in these matches. A one-second change from an underhook to an overhook to giving up a takedown, that’s everything. That’s a six-point swing. We’re losing matches we can win. We’re getting decisions where we could get techs. We’re getting techs when we can get pins. Those little things add up. I have to try and tell the guys it looks like a big gap now, but we can bump around when it comes time and I really think we can give those guys a run for their money.”

St. John Vianney went 4-1 at the two-day tournament with Friday victories over Seton Hall Prep (60-15), Don Bosco Prep (50-17) and Holy Cross (81-0). Senior heavyweight Rocco Dellagata also made his season debut after transferring from St. Joseph (Montvale). Dellagata, also a Cornell commit, is the defending heavyweight state champion and a consensus top-5 heavyweight in the country.

“It’s a great, quick litmus test,” Notte said of the Catholic School Duals. “Now we know what we really need to work on. We can wrestle mediocre teams and things like that but (matches) like this expose the fine details you need to sharpen up. This is great for us. We lost a match today but we’re not walking out hanging our heads.”

“Today we got to wrestle a state-championship caliber match and those opportunities don’t come for free,” Knox said. “A bunch of guys on our team got to wrestle some of the best guys in the country and state. It’s about learning what the code is to beat them so when we wrestle them here, wrestle them at Jack Welch Duals and then come state time we’re ready to go.”

 

Short-handed CBA wrestles well but has ground to make up

The host Colts went 3-2 overall with Friday victories over Red Bank Catholic, St. Benedict’s and St. Joseph (Montvale) before losses to St. Peter’s Prep and St. John Vianney on Saturday to finish in fourth place in the 14-team field.

CBA was without four standout starters in junior Bobby Duffy (132), sophomore state medalist Brock Oizerowitz (175), junior Tyler Palumbo (215) and senior heavyweight Jacob Howland. Duffy, a two-time state qualifier, last wrestled at the Powerade Tournament where he placed sixth at 133 pounds and earned two huge victories with a win by fall over last season’s 126-pound state champion Ryan DeGeorge (Delbarton) and a 7-0 decision over Southern’s Bryce Manera, last season’s NJSIAA fourth-place finisher at 132 pounds. Oizerowitz was eighth in the state at 175 pounds last season. Palumbo reached the third round of wrestlebacks last season but is still sitting out per the NJSIAA transfer rule after transferring from Red Bank Regional. Howland, a state qualifier last season, has yet to wrestle this season due to an injury.

Colts head coach Billy Ashnault acknowledged the impact of their absence but wasn’t about to make any excuses.

“This is what you sign up for,” Ashnault said. “We’re trying to get better every match. It doesn’t really matter who is in the lineup, we’re going to go out there to wrestle. We bumped some guys last match to see where we’re at. Maybe we can do that at the end of the season, maybe we can’t, but it’s good to see where we’re at.”

The Colts were led by senior A.J. Falcone, sophomore Paul Kenny and freshman Sean Kenny, who combined to go 13-0. Kenny, last season’s NJSIAA 113-pound third-place medalist who is ranked in the top 10 in the country at 120 pounds, won 8-2 over St. Joe’s senior two-time state medalist and Oklahoma commit Jonathan McGinty on Friday and won by major decision over St. John Vianney two-time state medalist Matt Gould. Falcone’s 5-0 tournament was headlined by a 14-7 win over St. Peter’s Prep’s Josh Piparo and a 9-0 win over Vianney’s John Saraiva.

 

Red Bank Catholic earns state-ranked win

The Caseys went 3-2 in the tournament, closing the weekend with a 37-32 win over No. 19 Seton Hall Prep and a 54-23 win over fellow Non-Public B contender DePaul. In the dramatic win over the Pirates, freshman Chris Kelesidis won by fall in the third period of the final bout at 126 pounds to clinch the victory.

With St. John Vianney now in Non-Public B, the on-paper favorite is Camden Catholic. RBC is certainly among the contenders and the Caseys’ win over Seton Hall showed they have the ability to make a deep postseason run.