Christian Brothers Academy Hopes To Make Another Run At State Title

Photo above: Colts 138-pounder Liam Gallagher

LINCROFT – In 2012 and again in 2013 Christian Brothers Academy (CBA) took home the South Jersey Non-Public A title – their second and third South Jersey Non-Public A titles in program history; 2002 being the other.

Last season as the No.2 seed they lost to No.1 seed St. Augustine 37-25 in the South Jersey Non-Public A final. This season the Colts would like nothing more than to recapture that lost title in the upcoming NJSIAA Wrestling Tournament and perhaps bring home the school’s first-ever Non-Public A title.

CBA won the District 22 team title last season for their first district title since 1968 and should be favored to repeat this season.

With their 45-24 win over Freehold Township (10-11, 4-3) Friday evening in the regular season finale, the Colts clinched second place in the Shore Conference A North, one game behind division winner Howell Township.

In Friday’s win versus the Patriots, the Colts placed six wrestlers with bonus-point producing victories: four pins, one major decision and one technical fall for 33 of their 45 points.

“It was a nice way to close out the regular season,” Colt head coach Russ Witt said. “This team wrestles hard every match. Even in the losses there’s a tremendous amount of fight in them and that’s what you want to see. Our philosophy is little different. Our goal is not to go out and win every match but to go out and wrestle the absolute best you can. And as a coach you hope that equals a win, but that’s really all you can ask of them.”

The Colts (19-3, 6-1) are the No.1 seed in this year’s NJSIAA South Jersey Non-Public A bracket and were awarded a first-round bye. They’ll host No.5 Bishop Ahr (6-11) - who beat No.4 Paul VI 34-33 in the quarterfinals - Wednesday, February 11 in the semifinals at CBA.

If they advance – which seems likely – they’ll probably face No.2 seed St. Augustine (12-4) in the final with a chance to extract a little revenge from last year’s loss to the Hermits in the sectional final. St. Augustine upset No.3 Don Bosco 32-31 Friday night and lost to No.8 Delbarton by three points in earlier in the season so they would once again be a formidable foe.

“I’m fully expecting to see St. Augustine here next Friday,” Witt said. “They’re a tough, tough team and very well coached.”

CBA is ranked fourth in the Shore Conference and No.23 in the state, while St. Augustine is ranked No.12 in the state, jumping five spots after beating Don Bosco.

The Colts chose to skip the Shore Conference Tournament instead opting for the J.W. Duals where they won four out of five matches with their only loss coming against Bound Brook (13-4) which is ranked ninth in the state. CBA’s two other losses this season came against division foe Howell Township (22-1) and Cranford (15-4) ranked sixth and 24th in the state respectively.

“The way it works at the end of the year is that you accumulate prestige points,” Witt explained. “There’s only a finite amount of prestige points in the Shore Conference so we felt it would help our seeding in the states if we wrestled in the J.W. Duals. Our region is one of the toughest in the state so it made sense to wrestle those guys with prestige points.”

CBA is led by a pair of undefeated juniors in Sebastian Rivera at 113 pounds and Dylan Van Sickell at 126 pounds with both sporting identical 26-0 records so far this season for the Colts. Rivera captured the District 22 championship and the tournament’s Most Outstanding Wrestler award last season as a sophomore at 106 pounds. Van Sickell placed second after a losing a grueling 7-6 decision in the 126-pound final.

Jack LaCorte, a junior wrestling at 182 pounds, has gone 19-6 this season while senior Alex Petrocelli wrestling at Hwt is 18-7. In addition, the Colts possess another six grapplers with double digit wins led by senior Justin Kieslor (17-10) at 170 pounds and junior Chris Koutzen (16-10) at 160 pounds.

Senior Liam Gallagher at 138 pounds has 16 wins against 12 losses and junior Garrett Fitzgerald is 14-12 at 152 pounds. Junior Ben Kuhn (12-4) at 145 pounds and junior Carl Vasti (11-14) at 120 pounds have all produced big-time results for the Colts.

“We have a whole team full of leaders, we really do,” said Witt. “I can’t say enough about them. Our heavyweight Alex Petrocelli is a great character guy and we have a lot character guys like that. Sebastian is a guy who is absolutely electric and great for the sport. Dylan’s the same way and has a tremendous amount of passion and energy for the sport and it’s contagious. That’s true about a lot of our guys: Garrett Fitzgerald, Jack LaCorte, everyone on our starting lineup…. they go out and they wrestle hard.”

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