MIDDLETOWN -Delbarton wrestling coach Bryan Stoll was impressed at the star power he saw in the Christian Brothers Academy gymnasium Saturday for the semifinal, championship and third-place matches of the second Catholic School Duals.
“When we were warming up, I just took a look around the gym and saw how many state champs were there,” Stoll said. “I can’t remember the last time, aside from the state tournament, where you had this much talent in one building on the same day.”
There were six returning state champions in the gym.
Delbarton, which won the championship of the power-packed event for the second straight year with wins of 47-17 over St. John Vianney in the semifinal and 50-12 over St. Peter’s Prep in the final. had three of them in Alessio Perentin, a two-time champion, Ryan DeGeorge and Cameron Sontz.
St. John Vianney, which defeated CBA 49-25 in the third-place match, had two state champions Anthony Knox, a three-time champion, and Rocco Dellagatta, who won his state title at St. Joseph (Montvale) last year.
St. Peter’s Prep, which defeated CBA 57-14 in the other semifinal, had the other state champion in Caedyn Ricciardi.
In an example of the power Delbarton has, senior Chase Quenault, seventh in the state at 132 last season while Ricciardi was winning the 138-pound title, began the championship match with a 4-3 win over Ricciardi.
There were several other state medal winners and many state qualifiers amongst the four semifinalists, too.
“It’s a great day for wrestling, and we had some really incredible matches (Saturday),” Stoll said. “The good thing is when you have matches like this and get the best individual matchups, it’s even better. Obviously, you want to win the dual meet, but you want to get those big, high profile individual matchups, and we had a ton of them (Saturday).”
The four semifinalists are ranked in the following order in the New Jersey Wrestling Writers Association Top 20: Delbarton (No. 1); St. Peter’s Prep (No. 3); St. John Vianney (No. 4) and CBA (No. 6).
Also in the 14-team two-day event were second-ranked St. Joseph (Montvale), was defeated 39-38 on criteria (most pins) Friday by CBA: No. 8 Don Bosco Prep, which St. John Vianney defeated 50-17 Friday; No. 12 Bergen Catholic, which was defeated 34-27 by St. Peter’s Prep; Friday No. 16 Seton Hall Prep, which went 0-3 on Friday and then was defeated 37-32 by Red Bank Catholic Saturday, and No. 17 St. Augustine.
“It was a very good event for New Jersey wrestling,” said Stoll, whose team has already wrestled in the National Hall of Fame Duals in Oklahoma City and the Powerade Tournament in Cannonsburg, Pa. and has several other high-profile events on its schedule, including a match with powerful Blair Academy. “I love it (the concept) of the Catholic Duals.
Beginning both of its matches with a bang:
Delbarton won high-profile bouts to begin both its matches Saturday.
Against St. John Vianney, DeGeorge, a sophomore, who won his state title at 126 last season, rallied to defeat three-time state medal winner Patrick O’Keefe 10-5 in the 132-pound bout.
O’Keefe, who was the state runner-up at 106 in 2022, led 5-1 in the second period. DeGeorge got a takedown in the third period to take the lead and then put O’Keefe to his back in the final seconds.
Quenault got an early takedown against Ricciardi and then defended stoutly the rest of the bout.
‘We were firing on all cylinders,” Stoll said. “We’re happy where we’re at to start the New Year.”
Quenault’s win over Ricciardi would have major seeding implications if the state tournament were seeded right now.
“My game plan was to get to my attacks, let my shots fly and control the match,” Quenault said.
There could be rematches
Many of the teams in the Catholic School Duals could wrestle each other at least one more time and maybe even two more times.
Delbarton, St. Peter’s Prep, St. John Vianney, CBA, St. Joseph (Montvale), Don Bosco Prep, Bergen Catholic, Seton Hall Prep and St. Augustine will all be in the Non-Public A bracket for the state team tournament. Delbarton is the defending Non-Public A champion. St. John Vianney moves up to Non-Public A after winning Non-Public B last season.
Delbarton and St. John Vianney could also meet in the Jack Welch Duals at Moorestown High School Jan. 17-18. St. John Vianney and CBA will meet on Jan. 15 in a Shore Conference Class A Division match.
And there was plenty of star power missing too from the event, too.
St. Joseph (Montvale) wrestled without 2024 state champions Zach Ballante and Adrian DeJesus, 2023 state runner-up Anthony Harris and 2024 state fourth-place finisher Mikey Bautista.
CBA wrestled without two-time state qualifier Bobby Duffy, who pinned DeGeorge in a Powerade wrestleback bout on Dec. 28; state eighth-place finisher Brock Oizerowitz; 2024 state qualifier Tyler Palumbo and two-time heavyweight state qualifier Jacob Howland.
“You’re going to see a lot better CBA team down the road. You’re going to see a lot better St. Peter’s Prep down the road. You’re going to see a lot better St. Joe’s (Montvale) team down the road,” Stoll said. “We know this is just a small gauge of where we are now.”
St. John Vianney finds out where it is at
St. John Vianney was able to field its best lineup as Dellagatta wrestled Friday for the first time this season after he had to sit out the first 22 days of the season under the NJSIAA transfer rules. He also wrestled on Saturday.
The Lancers won four bouts against Delbarton and acquitted itself well.
“Delbarton is a better team right now,” St. John Vianney coach Chris Notte said. “Hopefully, we can get better and close the distance when the time is necessary. This was a great, quick litmus test. Now, we know what we really need to work on. We can wrestle mediocre teams or whatever, but this really exposes the really fine detail which you need to sharpen up on.
“We lost a match (Saturday), but we’re not walking out of here hanging our heads. We know what we need to target in on and get better at. I’m happy with that.”
“It’s just little things that make big differences in these matches,” Knox said. “I’ve just got to try and tell the guys, it looks like a big gap now (with Delbarton), but we can bump around and when it comes time. I really think we can give those guys a run for their money.”
St. John Vianney, which jumped out to a 25-0 lead after five bouts against CBA and won nine of the 14 bouts, will jump right back into the fire Wednesday night when it hosts two-time defending Group 5 state champion Southern, ranked No. 7 in the NJWWA Top 20, in a Shore Conference Class A Division match.
