Shore Conference Wrestling Tournament Pairings

Steven Falk, Asbury Park Press
·3 min read

The big development to come out of Sunday's seeding meeting for the Shore Conference Wrestling Tournament was that St. John Vianney, fresh off its wins Saturday at the Patriot Duals at North Warren over three teams ranked in the New Jersey Wrestling Writers Association Top 20, is only the No. 5 seed.

The seeding committee, which consisted of a coach from each of the conference's six divisions, used overall body of work, data like last week's NJSIAA power points, scores against common opponents and who beat who in the conference to seed the tournament.

St. John Vianney, which has a lineup of talented freshman and several other transfers, began fielding its full lineup on Jan. 17 when its three transfers from other schools became eligible under NJSIAA transfer rules.

In the Patriot Duals, the Lancers defeated Livingston 47-21, North Hunterdon 37-32 and Kingsway 35-34. Those teams are ranked No. 20, 13 and 5 in the NJWWA Top 20.

St. John Vianney's two defeats - 40-39 to Governor Livingston and 39-36 to Northern Highlands - in a quad meet at River Dell on Jan. 8, came without its full lineup. It forfeited several weights in those matches.

There were two triangles. Christian Brothers Academy, Middletown South and Howell was the first one for the top three seeds. Raritan, Jackson Memorial and Lacey was the second one for the 6-8 seeds. Margin of victory and power points were used to seeds in both instances.

Southern, which is ranked No. 1 in the Asbury Park Press Top 1 and No. 8 in the NJWWA Top 20, opted out of the tournament. The Rams will wrestle at Monroe Monday night; host Lower Cape May Wednesday night and host Phillipsburg in the traditional match between those two state powers Saturday.

The SCT is returning to a team format for this season from an individual format because of the pandemic. It was a team tournament from 1975-2017 except for 1992 and 1994 when a herpes outbreak and snow forced postponements. The conference had an individual tournament from 2018-2020. The conference had just a pool system last season because of the pandemic.

Here are the pairings

SHORE CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT PAIRINGS

Head coach Billy Ashnault's Christian Brothers Academy team is the top seed in the Shore Conference Wrestling Tournament that begins Tuesday night.
Head coach Billy Ashnault's Christian Brothers Academy team is the top seed in the Shore Conference Wrestling Tournament that begins Tuesday night.

PRELIMINARY ROUND

TUESDAY

13. Freehold 50, 20 Manalapan 27

19 Middletown North 46, 14. Wall 22

15. Toms River East 46, 18. Manasquan 21

16. Freehold Township 45, 17. Jackson Liberty 31

THURSDAY

ROUND OF 16-QUARTERFINALS

AT 1. CHRISTIAN BROTHERS ACADEMY

1. CBA 65, 16. Freehold Township 9

8. Lacey 43, 9 Rumson-Fair Haven 30

1 CBA 57, 8. Lacey 15

AT 4. BRICK MEMORIAL

4. Brick Memorial 43, 13. Freehold 22

5. St. John Vianney 53, 12 Red Bank Catholic 18

5. St. John Vianney 40, 4. Brick Memorial 31

AT 3. HOWELL

3. Howell 59, 19. Middletown North 18

6. Raritan 52, 11 Ocean 24

3. Howell 44, 6. Raritan 18

AT 2. MIDDLETOWN SOUTH

2. Middletown South 50, 15 Toms River East 13

7. Jackson Memorial 47, 10 Point Pleasant Boro 20

2. Middletown South 43, 7. Jackson Memorial 17

NOTES: The starting weight for Thursday night will be drawn at CBA. Weigh-ins are at 3:30 p.m. at each site.

SEMIFINALS-FINALS

MONDAY, JANUARY 31

AT MIDDLETOWN SOUTH

5. St. John Vianney vs. 1. CBA , 5 p.m.

3. Howell vs. 2. Middletown South, 5 p.m.

FINAL

Semifinal winners, 7 p.m.

NOTES: Weigh-ins are at 3:30 p.m.

Any team that has to pull out because of Covid, the team it was supposed to wrestle will advance to the next round by forfeit.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Shore NJ Wrestling: SCT Tournament Pairings