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SKIN DISORDER HITS WALL WRESTLING
Shore Conference needs NJSIAA waiver to continue tourney

Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 01/31/06
BY JOE ADELIZZI
STAFF WRITER

FFORD * The director of the Shore Conference wrestling tournament told the seeding committee on Monday that the future of the annual event is in jeopardy.

Kim DeGraw-Cole told the selection committee that this is the last year that the NJSIAA will grant a waiver allowing the wrestlers for the two finalists to compete in four bouts during the week.

According to DeGraw-Cole, the state does not recognize the event as a tournament, but rather four separate dual meets for the two finalists, who would wrestle twice Wednesday night when the SCT begins, and twice more on Saturday when the semifinals and final will be wrestled at Southern Regional High School starting at 3 p.m.

"We need to have the rule changed," DeGraw-Cole told the committee. Current rules allow a wrestler to compete in only three dual meets in a week. There are exceptions that involve participation in quadrangular and triangular events. They count as only one meet.

She explained that a letter from any principal of a member school requesting a change in the definition of a tournament would be needed, and the NJSIAA would have to act on it next year for the event to remain in its current form.

DeGraw-Cole said that Southern principal Eric Wilhelm is willing to send the letter. She expects that once it is received that the rule will probably be changed.

"Either the rules committee, or the general membership can change the rule," she said.

None of this will help Wall, which was seeded 10th by the committee, but was forced to withdraw because of a skin disorder that has infected the team.

"We will have to shut down for eight days," said coach Jason Nase, who is a committee member. The withdrawal will not be official until today, when DeGraw-Cole receives written notification of the pullout.

When the door was shut on Wall, a window opened for Manchester (12-5). The Hawks were elevated to the No. 16 seed and will get the chance to wrestle No. 1 seed Jackson Wednesday when the tournament begins at the gym of the top four seeds at 5 p.m. The quarterfinals will follow at 7 p.m. with the winners advancing.

Jackson could very well be without two of its top wrestlers for that first match.

DeGraw-Cole and Ken Hoff, the coach at Ocean, debated an interpretation of the rules concerning wrestlers who competed in Sunday's New Jersey Coaches Invitational match at Brick Memorial.

Hoff said that he and his athletic director, Rusty Todd, had talked with Steve Timko, the NJSIAA executive director.

"(Timko) told us that the match would not stop (Dan) Lopes from wrestling in the SCT," said Hoff. If the match counts, it would make it five bouts this week for Lopes. The invitational was not part of the waiver the NJSIAA has granted for the SCT.

DeGraw-Cole said that Bob Baly, the assistant director in charge of wrestling, had ruled that the all-star match would count against the weekly total. That means if a team reaches the Shore Conference final, anyone who wrestled on Sunday would have to miss a match.

Hoff would be forced to sit Lopes, while Jackson loses Scott Winston and Ken Carney. Southern would miss Frank Molinaro for a match and Toms River North would have to sit Matt Oliver for one of the four bouts if they were to reach the final.

North is the No. 13 seed and will wrestle No. 4 Ocean in the first round. Brick Memorial was seeded fifth. The Mustangs will wrestle No. 12 Freehold.

Howell (14-0), the Class A North champion, was the No. 2 seed and Southern was seeded third.

There are three teams with losing records in the tournament field * Toms River North, Toms River East and Middletown North.

The committee used the teams' strength of schedule as a factor in their placement in the event, which was won by Jackson last year.