Long Branch Wrestling Captures Fourth Straight Title

While Long Branch has reached the apex of New Jersey wrestling in the past few seasons, capturing its fourth straight NJSIAA Central Jersey Group II title on Friday night might be the most satisfying accomplishment of them all.  

“This title has meant as much as the first one because we took a team with no expectations, got beat up, and still came here and won this,’’ Long Branch head coach Dan George said.  

The Green Wave rolled to a 43-13 win over Northern Burlington to win their fourth consecutive title in emphatic fashion and will now wrestle in the Group II semifinals on Sunday at 10 a.m. at Poland Spring Arena in Toms River. The victory also marked the 100th win in the careers of the Long Branch seniors to put the cherry on top of the championship.  

“To come here and win it for the fourth straight year as a senior, it just feels surreal,’’ said senior 135-pounder Luis Filipe, who won by technical fall in the final. “I’ve never heard of a team winning that many in a row, not the Jackson Memorials, not the High Points. For us to keep the tradition going after losing so many good wrestlers to graduation shows that Long Branch wrestling is here to stay.’’  

“This is the first senior class at Long Branch that can say they won four straight championships, so even though those guys the last two years won overall state titles and were ranked in the nation, they can’t say they got four,’’ George said. “I’m sure these kids will be texting and calling them and letting them know that.’’  

Long Branch is the two-time defending overall Group II champion, but this time the Green Wave will enter as underdogs on Sunday.  

“People have underestimated us all year, and we knew we were better than what people were saying,’’ Filipe said. “Let people keep talking, and we’ll keep proving them wrong.’’  

The Green Wave left no doubt on their home mat on Friday night, jumping out to a 26-3 lead by winning seven of the first eight bouts, four by technical fall, as Long Branch did a good job of piling up bonus points. Their lower weights set the tone, as 119-pounder Luke Balina scored a technical fall to give Long Branch a 5-3 lead, then Nick George (125), Gavin Pejakovich (130), Filipe (135), Matt Eggie (140) and Ryan Festejo all rattled off wins to give Long Branch complete control.  

Senior 215-pounder Paul Tracey capped his final home match by pinning John Konopka in 5:49 to help add an exclamation point with only two bouts remaining.  

“People underestimated us because of everyone we lost, but we have just worked hard and gotten better and better,’’ Tracey said.  

Long Branch graduated a class that included two-time state champion Nick Visicaro, another state champion in Scott Festejo, and four other wrestlers who had more than 100 career wins and top-eight finishes in the NJSIAA Individual Wrestling Championships.

The Green Wave saw their streak of 58 straight wins against Shore Conference competition end at the hands of Raritan during the regular season, and also had their streak of three straight Shore Conference Tournament titles fall against Jackson Memorial in the quarterfinals, but they did not let it ruin their season.  

“From what we were against Raritan to where we are now, we improved 100 percent,’’ Tracey said.  

“We’re a totally different team now, and I think the success of last year’s team and who we lost motivated these guys,’’ George said. “All they heard was how they weren’t going to be anything because of everyone who was graduating, and I think it made them work harder to show that this program wasn’t going anywhere.’’