After months of conversation and planning, girls wrestling in the Garden State has finally arrived. A pair of Shore Conference teams — Jackson Memorial and Manalapan — took part in the first-ever girls wrestling match Friday night before a packed house at Manalapan High School.
The excitement was through the roof. Coaches and wrestlers from both programs said afterwards they hoped to have kickstarted some momentum into more girls coming out for wrestling. The latest numbers show about 125 girls will wrestle throughout the season.
Jersey Sports Zone was on hand and captured every big moment from each match throughout the evening:
Match Results
Jackson Memorial 30 Manalapan 21
161: Abby Stanburry (JM) p. Ruba Chakra Abou 3:13.
185: Alley Meyer (JM) p. Olivia Delgado 1:44.
225: Jordyn Katz (JM) p. Samantha Albujar :56.
100: Trinity Valentin Walczak (M) by forfeit.
111: Julia Manolas (M) p. Gianna Tandari 1:02.
118: Avery Meyers (JM) p. Alexandra Urbanek 5:40.
127: Angelina Vitola (M) d. Kayla Gregory 5-3.
136: Brandi Rado (JM) p. Alyssa Curcio 1:00.
147: Jess Johnson (M) p. Skyelar Smith 1:03.
Exhibition Bout
Sabrina Maniscalco (M) d. Shannon Stroud 6-3.
More Girls Wrestling Coverage
Jersey Sports Zone sat down with coaches and wrestlers prior to the 2018-2019 season to gauge the interest of girls wrestling across the state. The results? Astounding. Watch our feature from July that gets into the nuts and bolts about how girls wrestling in New Jersey can take off: