Four Bridgewater-Raritan High School wrestlers—seniors Matt DiEduardo, Lerrod Smalls and Mark Marsigliano and sophomore Trent Levash— will enter the center stage when they compete in the NJSIAA State Individual Tournament at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.
The state tournament will start on Thursday, March 6, and run through the championship round that is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. on Saturday, March 8.
All four of these state qualifiers for Bridgewater-Raritan placed in the top four of his weight class at Region 4, which was wrestled on February 28 and March 1 at Union High School.
All eight regions in New Jersey were completed on March 1 and the top four finishers in each weight class from each of the eight regions qualified for the state tournament. A total of 448 wrestlers will converge on Boardwalk Hall.
DiEduardo punched his second straight ticket to the state tournament when he won the Region 4 title at 165 pounds. He pinned in John Zero of Paramus Catholic High at 3:18 in the title bout to become the first region champion for Bridgewater-Raritan since 2017.
DiEduardo finished as the runner-up at 150 pounds in Region 4 last winter.
Marsigliano and Smalls each placed third to qualify for a trip to the state tournament.
Marsigliano then won his bronze medal at 132 pounds on a go-ahead takedown with six seconds remaining to earn a 6-4 decision against Westfield High School’s Dylan Sontz.
Smalls earned the third-place medal at 190 pounds when he pinned Rahway High School’s Andrew Avent in 2:39.
Levash was guaranteed a berth in the state tournament when he advanced to the third-place round at 215 pounds with an 8-1 decision over John Guirgius of Bayonne High School. Levash was then defeated by Guy Oelsner of Paramus Catholic by a technical fall, 15-0 at 4:33, to receive his fourth-place medal.
These four state qualifiers also contributed to what has been a historical season at Bridgewater-Raritan.
Under the guidance of Coach Kyle Murphy, this team established a school record for victories with its 21-8 mark and Bridgewater-Raritan advanced to its first group state championship bout when the Panthers wrestled in the Group 5 state final on February 16 at Rutgers University.
Bridgewater-Raritan fell by a score of 58-18 in the Group 5 state final to Southern Regional High School, which won its third straight Group 5 state crown.
Here is the complete state tournament schedule, which includes both the boys’ and girls’ rounds.
Thursday, March 6
10 a.m. - Girls pre-quarterfinals, quarterfinals, wrestle-backs 2
10:40 a.m. - Boys preliminaries, pre-quarterfinals, wrestle-backs 1
Friday, March 7
9 a.m. - Boys wrestle-backs 2, quarterfinals, wrestle-backs 3, wrestle-backs 4
1 p.m. - Girls semifinals, wrestle-backs 3
6 p.m. - Boys semifinals, wrestle-backs 5, girls consolation semifinals
Saturday, March 8
9 a.m. - Boys consolation semifinals
9:45 a.m. - Boys and girls third-, fifth- and seventh-place matches
1 p.m. - Girls finals
3:30 p.m. - Boys finals