Wayne Valley wins first county team wrestling title;
wrestlers from eight different schools claim gold medals

Passaic County Wrestling tournament finals For the first time in school history, the Wayne Valley wrestling team can call itself county champions.  The Indians advanced six wrestlers into the finals at the 2009 Passaic County tournament, and even though only one of those finalists won his match, the team piled up 173 points to fairly easily outdistance the field and claim the trophy.

Wayne Valley's only champion was 135-pounder Luke Rigoglioso, who made up for a loss in last year's finals by pinning Clifton's James DeLillo in his bout.  The finals featured a number of impressive performances and saw no fewer than eight schools claim individual wrestling titles.

Second-place West Milford grabbed three titles to please the home crowd.  125-pounder Evan Poole secured a technical fall victory, but the Highlanders made the most noise up top.  Will Weaver won the 215 pound title with a 10-2 decision, and heavyweight Luke Ramsey won 5-2 over Wayne Valley's Emrah Akil.

Passaic Valley also picked up two titles.  140-pounder Ryan Dunphy was expected to win, and he didn't disappoint with a spectacular pin in the finals.  The other crown came as a surprise, as fourth seed Rob Sotelo knocked off the top two seeds in his weight class to win the title at 160 pounds.  The Hornets took third in the team race.

The other three Jersey Sports Now schools competing at the event each took one title:  A.J. Mott of DePaul at 189 pounds, Zach Conklin of Lakeland a 171, and Evan Lodder of Pompton Lakes at 119.  The most individual wrestling titles actually went to Passaic Tech, which took home four gold medals despite finishing fourth as a team.  Manchester Regional also secured one individual title.  -- Paul Mencher for Jersey Sports Now