SPORTS

Howell unanimous No. 1 seed in SCT

Steven Falk
@smfalk

LITTLE SILVER – The Shore Conference Wrestling Tournament was seeded Sunday morning at Red Bank Regional without too much difficulty.

Here are the seeds for the Shore Conference Wrestling Tournament

Now, tournament officials and wrestling fans in the Shore are waiting to see if the tournament schedule will be disrupted by the potential blizzard that could hit the area Monday night into Tuesday.

The tournament is scheduled to begin Tuesday with the four preliminary-round matches involving the 13-20 seeds at seeds 13-16.

How we projected the SCT seeds

Tournament director Del Dal Pra, the athletic director at Red Bank Regional, said it will be up to the host schools Tuesday night whether they can wrestle or not. Dal Pra said if a match scheduled for Tuesday night can not be held, it will be moved to Wednesday night.

Here are Saturday's Shore Conference wrestling results

The winners of those preliminary-round matches will wrestle one of the top four seeds Thursday night in the round of 16.

The round of 16 and quarterfinals are scheduled for Thursday night at 5 and 7 at the top four seeds, which are Howell, Brick Memorial, Brick and Jackson Memorial in that order. If one site can not go on Thursday, then all sites will be moved to Friday night, Dal Pra said.

The semifinals and championship match are scheduled for Saturday at 3 and 5:30 p.m. at Jackson Liberty with Feb. 1 as a potential makeup date should the weather result in changes.

The SCT, which began in 1975, has been postponed twice. It was not held in 1992 because of a Herpes outbreak and in 1994 because of snow.

Howell (17-0), the defending champion, was the unanimous selection as the top seed by the committee of coaches. The committee consisted of Howell's John Gagliano (Class A North); Raritan's Rob Nucci (Class A Central); Lacey's Tom Pfister (Class A South); Long Branch's Dan George (Class B North); Keansburg's Chris DeTalvo (Class B Central) and Point Pleasant Boro's Pat Brady (Class B South).

The Rebels, who beat Brick Memorial in the final last year for their first SCT championship last year, have wins over Phillipsburg, South Plainfield, No. 5 seed Long Branch, Southern and Christian Brothers Academy.

Howell records impressive win over Long Branch

Brick Memorial, whose only loss is to Bergen Catholic, the No. 1 ranked team in the New Jersey Wrestling Writers Association Top 20, is the No. 2 seed. The Mustangs have wins over Brick, Jackson Memorial, Southern and No. 8 seed Raritan in addition to solid out of area wins over Roxbury and St. Joseph (Montvale).

Rivera clinches Brick Memorial win over Jackson Memorial

Brick earned the No. 3 seed over Jackson Memorial by because of its win by criteria (most first points scored) over the Jaguars on Dec. 31 after a 28-28 tie. There was some thought before the meeting that the Brick-Jackson Memorial match might be looked at as a tie.

Brick outlasts Toms River South

With Brick being the No. 3 seed, that quarter of the bracket is an all Class A South affair as No. 6 seed Toms River South will wrestle No. 11 seed Toms River North. Toms River South, which was up for the No. 5 seed, only to see Long Branch get the nod by the committee defeated Toms River North, 39-24, on Jan. 17 and lost to Brick, 33-29, Saturday in a match in which both teams were without a starter.

Jackson Memorial being the No. 4 seed could create an intriguing semifinal match with Howell in which a lot of potential matchups in the District 21 Tournament could take place.

The best preliminary-round match could be No. 19 Manalapan at No. 14 Point Boro. Those matchups were done with an emphasis placed on having teams wrestle each other who have either not already met or creating matchups with potential district tournament seeding implications.

The best potential round of 16 matchup is No. 9 Jackson Liberty-No. 8 Raritan in a rematch of a 31-30 Raritan win on Jan. 10 in which Raritan recorded a surprise pin at 160 in a bout Jackson Liberty was expected to win and a pin at 170 with three seconds left in the bout.

Other intriguing round of 16 matchups are Toms River North vs. Toms River South and No. 10 seed Middletown North-No. 7 seed Wall where Middletown North's Chad Freshnock, a state qualifier last year at 182, could meet Wall's unbeaten Matt McKenzie, the Region VI fourth-place finisher last year at 170, at either 195 or 220.

The best potential quarterfinal-round matchups are Toms River South-. Brick and Long Branch-. Jackson Memorial.

Steven Falk: 732-643-4267; sfalk@app.com