Here’s why two top teams won’t be at the Shore Conference Wrestling Tournament

There will be great wrestling Friday night and Saturday at Middletown High School South when the Shore Conference Individual Tournament takes place.

Two returning state champions - two-time champion Anthony Knox of St. John Vianney and defending 215 pound champion Hudson Skove of Rumson-Fair Haven - will be in the tournament.

But, among those who will not is Brick Memorial's 2022 175 pound champion and 2023 175 pound state runner up Harvey Ludington. Brick Memorial coach Mike Kiley said Ludington's absence is due to a bout count. Ludington won the Beast of the East on Dec. 17 and will wrestle in the Escape The Rock Tournament at Council Rock South Pa. High School on Jan. 13-14, Kiley said.

Also not entered is Red Bank Catholic senior heavyweight and 2022 NJSIAA seventh place finisher at heavyweight Lorenzo Portella. Portella will be taking collegiate visits for football this weekend, Red Bank Catholic head coach Joe Gallagher said.

But, from a team standpoint, it will not be hard to see who is missing - wrestlers from the powerhouse Southern and Christian Brothers Academy teams. Both those schools have opted not to participate in the SCT and will be in other high powered events this weekend.

More: Shore Conference Wrestling Top 15: Which 2 teams enter the rankings?

"Obviously, we want all the Shore Conference teams to be in it,'' SCT wrestling tournament director Chris Ferone said.

Among the Southern and CBA wrestlers who will not be seen by those attending the tournament are Southern's returning state champion Matt Henrich, CBA's three-time state medal winner Alex Nini and Colts talented freshman Paul Kenny.

The Shore Conference, in its bylaws, gives all schools the option to opt out of any Shore Conference Tournament.

One of the highest profile examples is CBA's highly successful ice hockey program. The ice Colts don't play a Shore schedule - only skating a few games against local rivals - and opt out of the SCT Ice Hockey Tournament so they can play a Gordon Conference schedule and participate in the long-running Gordon Cup against elite non-public hockey schools.

Southern has opted out of the SCT Wrestling Tournament, which it hosted from 2002-2011, every year since 2012. The Rams won the SCT when it was a dual-meet tournament in 1997, 1998 and 2011.

But the added defection of CBA results in what is probably the first time the consensus Nos. 1 and 2 ranked teams in the Shore will not be in an SCT - in any sport. Southern is ranked No. 1 and CBA is No. 2. Wrestling is one of the highest profile tournaments the Shore Conference has.

"Unfortunately, they took a different path,'' Ferone said. "They are looking at it from what is best for them.''

More: Shore Conference wrestling scoreboard for Jan. 2-4

CBA will be hosting a blockbuster tournament

CBA, which won the SCT when it was a dual-meet tournament in 2016 and 2022 and last season, when it was an individual tournament, will be hosting the Catholic School Duals Saturday.

Teams in that event are St. Joseph (Montvale), Delbarton, St. Peter's Prep, CBA, Don Bosco Prep, Seton Hall Prep, St. Joseph (Metuchen) and St. Augustine. St. Joseph, Delbarton and St. Peter's Prep are ranked No. 1, 2 and 3 in the New Jersey Wrestler Writers Association Top 20 in that order, Don Bosco Prep and CBA are ranked No. 8 and 9 and Seton Hall Prep and St. Joseph (Metuchen) are ranked No. 15 and 17.

The tournament will be conducted in a straight bracket dual-meet style with St. Joseph and Delbarton the top two seeds and lined up to meet in the final.

The first round matchups for that are as follows: No. 1 St. Joseph (Montvale) vs. No. 8 St. Augustine; No. 4 CBA vs. No. 5 Don Bosco Prep; No. 3 St. Peter's Prep vs. No. 6 Seton Hall Prep and No. 7 St. Joseph (Metuchen) vs. No. 2 Delbarton. The times for those rounds are 9 a.m., 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

"I didn't want to pass up on this opportunity,'' CBA coach Billy Ashnault said. "I think it's great for the sport of wrestling and us at CBA. Individually, our guys get the chance to beat some really good individuals and get major criteria (for seeding) in the state tournament and districts and regions, especially now that we're not in a region with most of the Shore Conference teams.

"Realistically, we need to beat guys that are not in the Shore Conference for seeding in districts and regions.''

CBA had been in Region 6, which was mostly a Shore Conference-based region for years. It is now in Region 7, where among the other Shore Conference teams are Southern and St. John Vianney. St. John Vianney, ranked No. 3 in the APP Top 15, is the favorite to win the SCT team championships

Southern and CBA will also wrestle each other Tuesday night at CBA.

Where will Southern be?

Southern, ranked No. 6 in the NJWWA Top 20, will be wrestling Saturday in a tri-meet at Mount Olive against Mount Olive and High Point. Mount Olive is ranked No. 14 in the NJWWA Top 20. High Point is the defending NJSIAA Group 2 champion.

"We've been going to that tri for a long time,'' Southern coach Dan Roy said. "We do our schedule pretty early. We need to get the matches that we can. We need to wrestle the teams we've wrestled for years, like Mount Olive, High Point and Phillipsburg . We're trying to do the best thing for our team.''

The SCT, conducted as a dual-meet tournament from 1975-2017 and again in 2022, until this year was on the last weekend in January. For most of the years since it opted out of the SCT, Southern wrestled Phillipsburg in one of the state's highly anticipated matches in any year on the weekend of the SCT. This season, the Rams will wrestle the Stateliners on Jan. 17.

This year, the Shore Conference moved the tournament up on the schedule to give schools the flexibility to schedule matches on that last Saturday in January to help their power rating in qualification for the NJSIAA Team Tournament. The last Saturday in January is the cutoff date for qualification for the team tournament.

"We're always looking to evolve and evaulate if this is the right date for this tournament,'' Ferone said.

Roy, who said he does his schedule in the spring, said the uncertainity over when the SCT would be contributed to the decision to not enter.

"I'm not going to get rid of that Mount Olive tri,'' Roy said. "We have a great relationship with them. They come down for our tournament every year (the season-opening Robin Leff Tournament that Southern hosts). Our matches with them are always competitive, which is good. It's hard to find public schools that will wrestle us now and we need the power points. ''

Southern's weekend schedule in January is filled with high profile events.

Southern will be in the Escape The Rock Tournament Jan. 13-14.

The Rams will wrestle at South Plainfield - another match it tradtionally wrestles - on Jan. 19. They will host the Shore Conference Wrestling Showcase on Jan. 20. Southern will wrestle Old Bridge. Brick Memorial will wrestle Paulsboro. Point Pleasant Borough will wrestle South Plainfield and Raritan will wrestle Morris Knolls in that event.

On Jan. 27, Southern will host a quad against Cranford, Haddonfield and Shawnee.

Opportunities exist for wrestlers from other schools

The absence of high profile wrestlers from Southern and CBA may create opporntunites for wrestlers to win an SCT title that may not have existed if Southern and CBA were there.

"I think we have a lot of great wrestling in the Shore Conference,'' Ferone said. "We're going to go ahead with the teams and wrestlers that we have. The way I look at it is it will be their time to shine, their moment. ''

Will Southern and CBA return to the SCT in the future?

The answer to that question is mixed.

"I don't know,'' Roy said. "It depends on when it is and it depends on the team we have.''

Ashnault said he would like to see a change in format.

"The Shore Conference is trying to do the best they can,'' Ashnault said. "I'd really like it to go back to the team dual-meet format. We go to enough individual tournaments.''

CBA, like Southern, sent wrestlers to the power-packed Powerade Tournament at Canon McMillian (Pa.) High School last weekend .The Colts will also participate in the Escape The Rock and they sent wrestlers to the Sam Cali Invitational Dec. 27-28.

"Another individual tournament, regarding the Shore Conference, I don't think that's the best format,'' Ashnault said. "If it went back to the team format and everybody entered, I'd love to do that.''

Ferone said the Shore Conference will continue with the individual format.

"This tournament could really be like a Beast of the East (the season opening tournament at the University of Delaware), or some of those other national type tournaments because of the kids we have in the Shore Conference,'' Ferone said. "Would we like to have those two (Southern and CBA) in it? Yeah, it would be great.

"After this tournament, we'll reflect on where this tournament needs to go to get teams like Southern and CBA in. I don't know if they will, but hopefully we can find a time during the season that would be better for all the teams to go.''

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Shore Conference Tournament NJ wrestling: Why Southern, CBA are out