Districts? Goles? Sections? AC? Oh My! A Guide to WMC Wrestling's Road to Glory

By David Yaskulka

Photos by Jen Sheppard and Sheryl Reed.

11/21/25

With West Morris Central High School 2025-26 wrestling right around the corner, it’s a good time for new parents (and wrestlers!) to get the season lay of the land. It can be confusing!

NJ high school wrestling is organized by two simple pairs: timing and type of competition. Timing is divided by the regular season and playoffs. Type is divided between individual and team. We’ll look at the four categories they create: team regular season, individual regular season, team playoffs, and individual playoffs. Then we’ll touch on some “bonus” categories – the record books, seeding, rankings, JV, and the off season.

Regular Season Team Competition

Team versus team, home crowd cheering – for many, this is the most fun wrestling gets, and it’s our version of Friday Night Lights. It’s 14 bouts, one for each weight class, each team putting out its best to face the other school's best.

These are called dual meets or duals, meaning two teams. Just to be confusing, sometimes three teams show up for a “tri-meet” so WMC faces both of them. Or we can have three duals on a single day in a quad-match.

Teams are divided into Conferences and Divisions (Garden State H.S. Wrestling is a great site for keeping track of standings). WMC is in the North West Jersey Athletic Conference, American Division. Regular season team records determine the champions. In 2024-25, WMC placed 3rd to Conference champ Delbarton and runner up Mt. Olive. In 2005-26 Delby moves out, giving WMC a chance at the crown versus powerhouse Mt. Olive.

Last season in 2024-25, WMC went a record-tying 18-7, while also winning the District 11 team championship. Memorable duals included an improbable victory over Immaculata, avenging a prior loss to 1st place Passaic Valley, and of course the always-memorable victory over Mendham with Robert Fazzino returning to action.

Regular Season Individual Competition

Each starting wrestler compiles a won-loss record based on every time he steps on the mat, including during team competitions. But the regular season also has opportunities for individual glory along the way, in tournaments.

Examples for WMC can include the Morris Knolls Tournament, the John Goles Tournament, and even the Morris County Tournament. Individuals compete for gold, silver or bronze medals, or even the prestige of simply placing in their weight class. Just to make it confusing, teams can also be awarded medals at these tournaments based on how the individuals fared. In some of these tournaments, non-starting wrestlers can also enter for their school (i.e., the school enters more than one wrestler in a weight class), though their accomplishments won’t count for the team.

A wrestler’s record in both duals and tournaments will count towards his seeding in the individual playoffs.

Some memorable individual performances included the debuts of an exceptionally strong group of freshmen, Jacob Harrison and Tommy Borgia taking Goles gold, and the Morris County Tournament with Brody Neill and Borgia winning championships and Mark Montuore nabbing his 100th career win.

Team Playoffs

Based on powerpoints (a combination of team wins and losses and strength of competition), schools are seeded into Sections (North 1, North 2, Central, South) and Groups (1, 2, 3, 4 for Public; A, B for Non-Public) before competing in Sectional and Group Finals. For some, this is a confusing part of the season, scheduled before individual playoffs. Depending on how WMC does, sometimes regular season dual meets can even be scheduled after the playoffs.

Only the top eight schools (out of 14) qualify. WMC will compete in the North 2, Group 2 Section. Rounds 1 and 2 are scheduled for February 16, 2026, hosted by the top two seeds.

Section champs go on to compete in the State Group semifinals, and then Championships at Rutgers.

WMC was the two-seed in the team Sectional playoffs in 2024-25, topping Elmwood Park at home before falling to Governor Livingston in the semi-finals. Both Gov. Livingston (losing four 30-win seniors and two more key starters) and section champ Caldwell (losing five 25-win seniors) have lost more key wrestlers to graduation than WMC (losing just one), possibly making WMC a Section favorite.

Individual Playoffs

For many wrestlers, individual playoffs are the holy grail of New Jersey wrestling glory. Unlike most states, New Jersey crowns just one State Champion per weight class. Forty states have multiple champs in various groups or divisions.

The path to individual playoff glory starts with wrestlers' regular season accomplishments, which determine their seeds in the playoffs.

That starts with Districts, where every varsity starter gets to compete. Districts also crown team champions at their tournaments. This season WMC competes in District 12, with the tournament hosted by Randolph on February 28, 2026. WMC will remain a favorite along with St. Benedicts, and will get to compete against local rivals Mendham, Hackettstown,Warren Hills and the host squad.

The top three wrestlers in each weight class advance to Regions, a grueling tournament that sends many top wrestlers home disappointed. WMC remains in Region 3, pitting medalists from Districts 9, 10, 11 and 12. The tournament will be hosted by West Orange March 6-7.

Top-four placers at Regions advance to States, the NJSIAA State Championships in hallowed Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City March 12-14.

There, the top-eight finishers – the best of the best – climb the Boardwalk Hall podium and are enshrined in New Jersey wrestling history with WMC wrestlers like… and future NCAA champs like like Jordan Burroughs, Anthony Ashnault, Nick Suriano.

In 2024-25, WMC District Champions included Chris Kowalik, Neill, Harrison, and Borgia, who then won his second Region championship, advancing to States with Neill. Borgia then climbed the podium for the first time in AC.

WMC School Record Books

Along the way, this reporter will try to update everyone on historic achievements (official records are held by Coach Chris Marold).

Last season, co-captains Borgia and Montuore spilled gallons of ink into the WMC record books. Borgia, along with Brody Neill and others are poised to break records. Neill could become WMC’s third-ever junior to reach 100 wins (Borgia, Shane Metzler). Both captains hit the century mark last season.

Seeding

Seeding is complicated. One can review the NJSIAA web site for information on seeding for both individual and team playoffs. https://www.njsiaa.org/sports/wrestling . Importantly, seeding is different from ranking in New Jersey (though in some other states, it can be the same).

The goal of seeding is to have the best individuals and the best teams advance. For example, good seeding would prevent the second best wrestler from being eliminated early by the best wrestler – and prevent the eighth-best wrestler in the state being denied a spot on the podium by facing a top-seven wrestler too early.

But it’s challenging to do, and usually controversial. And the criteria for different tournaments are not universal.

Rankings

Rankings, especially RankWrestlers.com (RW) rankings, can be a much better indicator of a wrestler’s progress than won-lost records. Here’s an in-depth explanation of how it works.

West Morris Central faces a very tough schedule, so won-loss records are “deflated.” Wrestlers on teams with easy schedules have inflated won-loss records. Rankings give a better picture of where you are. A statistically average New Jersey wrestler (someone who beats top-half ranked wrestlers and typically loses to those bottom-half ranked) on WMC wins only about 30% of their matches, since we face much-better-than-average competition.

Most ranking sites, such as NJ.com, Full Circle Wrestling, and FloWrestling rank the very top wrestlers in NJ (top 8-20 per weight). They are subjective, expert-driven sites that typically do a good job of predicting who will get to Atlantic City, and who will be on the podium. RankWrestlers.com, an algorithm-based system where wins and losses are adjusted based on the quality of the wins and of the opponent, ranks every varsity wrestler. RW does not take off-season wrestling into consideration.

Junior Varsity (JV)

The Junior Varsity squad, typically led by the assistant coaches, is made of any wrestler who did not win a starting varsity role. Sometimes, sadly, wrestlers who could (or did!) experience significant varsity success nonetheless wrestle JV due to losing a wrestle-off to an even more skilled grappler.

JV bouts typically occur prior to varsity dual meets (e.g., 6 pm on the night of a 7 pm dual). Sometimes they occur alongside varsity regular season tournaments.

The regular season also boasts a series of JV Tournaments, including the Roxbury JV Tournament, and our own West Morris Central JV Tournament. Success in these highly competitive tournaments is often a harbinger of future varsity success.

Sometimes, a less-experienced wrestler still wins a varsity slot, and in light of WMC’s grueling schedule, can be overmatched. JV coaches will sometimes agree to permit such varsity wrestlers to also compete on the JV squad as a more appropriate step in that wrestler’s development.

WMC’s top JV Wrestler is bestowed the Future Star award, which went to Jack Sheppard in 2024-25.

Off Season

Hall of Fame NFL coach George Allen famously said “What you do in the off season determines what you do in the regular season.”

Variations of this theme are widely expressed throughout the wrestling community, including Olympic Champion Dan Gable saying "Gold medals aren't really made of gold. They're made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to-find alloy called guts."

WMC wrestlers go to wrestling clubs like Este Built, Iron Horse, Edge, Apex, Elite, and Scorpions, all of which are dialed in to off season tournaments.

Top-level off season national competition can be found at tournaments like Super 32, Fargo, NHSCA Nationals, and the Junior/Cadet National Duals. Closer to home, WMC wrestlers can frequently be found at USAW, War at the Shore, Freestyle and Greco-Roman NJ State Qualifiers.

WMC typically arranges to attend one or more off season wrestling camps as a team, with TCNJ being the most recent common location.

Off season competition has no formal impact on NJ HS season records. The subjective ranking systems like Full Circle, FloWrestling and NJ.com take off season success into consideration, but the algorithm-based RankWrestlers.com does not.

The Glossary: Decoding the WMC Season (A–Z)

Conference

The large league of local schools WMC competes against.

• WMC is in: The NJAC (Northwest Jersey Athletic Conference).

Districts

Round 1 of the Individual State Playoffs. Every varsity wrestler competes here to keep their season alive.

• WMC is in: District 12 (usually hosted by Randolph).
• The Rule: Top 3 placers advance to Regions.

Division

A subgroup within the Conference, grouping schools by size and competitive level for regular season scheduling.

• WMC is in: The National Division (competing against rivals like Roxbury, Morris Knolls, Mendham, and Sparta).

Dual Meet

The standard "Team vs. Team" regular season competition. It consists of 14 bouts (one per weight class), and the team with the highest cumulative score wins.

Goles (John Goles Invitational)

A prestigious, long-running holiday tournament hosted by Warren Hills in December. It is an individual tournament (wrestlers compete for personal medals), but doing well here earns crucial "seeding criteria" for the playoffs.

Group

The NJSIAA classification based on school enrollment size, used primarily for the Team Playoffs.

• WMC is in: Group 2 (Medium-sized public schools).

Individual Playoffs

The path to personal glory that happens after the regular season. The road is: Districts → Regions → States.

Knolls (Morris Knolls Tournament)

An early-season individual tournament similar to the Goles. It is a chance for WMC wrestlers to win medals and build their resume, but it does not count toward the official Team State Championship.

MCT (Morris County Tournament)

A mid-season tournament held at Mount Olive (usually) to crown the best wrestlers in Morris County. While winning a County title carries huge local prestige, this is a standalone event and does not formally qualify you for the State Tournament in Atlantic City.

NJSIAA

The governing body for High School sports in NJ. They set the rules, calculate the Power Points, and run the official District, Region, and State tournaments.
Power Points A complex math formula based on a team's wins, losses, and the strength of their opponents (residual points). These points determine if the WMC Team qualifies for the Sectional playoffs.

Quad-Match

A regular season event where four teams meet at one location, allowing WMC to wrestle three different Dual Meets in a single day.

Rankings

Subjective or algorithm-based lists created by websites (like RankWrestlers.com or NJ.com) that attempt to predict who the best wrestlers are. These are fun for fans but are not official NJSIAA distinctions.

Regions

Round 2 of the Individual Playoffs, often called "The Gauntlet." Qualifiers from four different Districts collide here.

• WMC is in: Region 3 (hosted by West Orange).
• The Rule: Top 4 placers advance to Atlantic City.

Regular Season

The schedule of Dual Meets and tournaments from December through early February. These matches determine a wrestler's record and seed for the playoffs.
Section The geographic boundary used for the Team State Playoffs.

• WMC is in: North 2 (Specifically: North 2, Group 2).

Sectional Finals

The championship round of the Team Playoffs. If WMC wins the "North 2, Group 2" Section, they are crowned Sectional Champs and move on to the State Group Semifinals to face champions from the South and Central sections.

Seeding

The process of ranking wrestlers before a tournament begins to set up the bracket. The goal is to separate the best competitors so they meet in the finals rather than the first round.

States ("Boardwalk" or "AC")

The Individual State Championships held at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. The top 32 wrestlers in the state (Top 4 from each of the 8 Regions) meet here to crown one single State Champion per weight class.

Team Playoffs

The tournament to determine the best School squad. It happens just before the Individual playoffs. The road is: Sectionals → Group Championships.

Tri-Meet

A regular season event where three teams meet at one location, allowing WMC to wrestle two Dual Meets in a single day.

About David Yaskulka

To avoid concession duty when his sons Noah and Ben joined WMC in 2012, David revived his sportswriter dream, and still covers the Pack. He’s a sustainability advocate and pet industry executive, having served as CEO of Nature’s Logic, SVP of Mid America Pet Food, and Board
Chair of the Pet Sustainability Coalition and Greater Good Charities. He currently advises Love, Nala cat food, Archway Pet Food, rePurpose Global plastic action platform, and New Zealand Trade & Enterprise. He invites all WMC wrestlers and their families to connect with him (and with each other!) on LinkedIn.