Junior Bulldog a State Wrestling Champ

A pint-sized Fair Haven resident has scored a big wrestling coup.

Shay Addison won the New Jersey Scholastic State Wrestling Championship for 65 lb Bantams — eight and under — held on Saturday at Union High School. 

Addison, also a member of Triumph Wrestling Club, is the first wrestler from the Rumson-Fair Haven area to win a state title.

To participate in the championship wrestlers must place in the top three at one of eight qualifying tournaments held throughout New Jersey in January and February. From those events, the top 24 wrestlers in their age and weight groups moved on to Saturday's championship.

After a first round bye, Addison fought his way through four tough matches to win the title. His first match was a 7-4 win against a very good wrestler from Newton.

His second was the toughest of the day against the eventual third-place winner from Piscataway. The boys battled to a 0-0 tie at the end of regulation, with each of them narrowly avoiding being scored on through the first three periods.

Addison was able to get a 2-0 sudden victory win with a takedown half way through the first overtime. He went on to win 8-3 against the eventual fourth place finisher from Cresskill, before meeting up in the state finals against an opponent from Intensity Wrestling, a top South Jersey wrestling club located in West Deptford.  

Addison scored a first period takedown and made it hold through the remainder of the match to record a 2-0 victory in the finals.

RFH Junior Bulldogs History:

During the 2012-2013 season Addison wrestled for the RFH Junior Wrestling team coached by Tom and Andrew Skove. The R-FH team won the Jersey Shore division championship and produced eight individual place winners and three division champions: Theo Addison (122), Jamie Laughinghouse (107), and Shay Addison (64).

The RFH Junior Bulldogs program is also paying off at the high school level with two ex-Junior Bulldogs, and current triumph wrestlers, putting RFH on the map in 2013.  

Marcus Iwama, who has complied a remarkable 65-5 record in his first two years at R-FH, was second in the district and third in the region to become a state qualifier at 126 lbs. Cole Bisaccia went 23-9 in his sophomore campaign and became the first R-FH district wrestling champion since 2003.

There is one more weekend of State Championship wrestling for the kids in Moorestown for juniors (11-12) and intermediates (13-14).

Shay's brother Nick, a state fourth-place finisher in 2012 at novice (9-10) 95 lbs, hopes to get back on the podium as a first year junior; and Jamie Laughinghouse, an intermediate, hopes to make his mark after going undefeated for the Dawgs during the regular season and division individual championships.