NJSIAA Announces State Wrestling Tournament Plans

ROBBINSVILLE, NJ – New Jersey's high school wrestlers will have the chance to compete for individual state championships in 2021, the NJSIAA announced Monday.

The state tournament season, which usually is finishing up in early March, will be cut back because the season is so reduced, the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, the state's high school sports governing body, said in a news release.

High school wrestling season in New Jersey officially got underway with practices on Monday.

There will be no team tournament this year and the individual championships will begin with regional competitions instead of districts, with the regions being held April 3 for the girls and April 17 and 18 for the boys. The state championships will be held April 10 for the girls and on April 24 and 25 for the boys, the NJSIAA said.

The venues for the regional and state competitions have yet to be finalized, the NJSIAA said.

"While all plans are subject to change based on virus-related considerations, determinations related to occupancy — including spectators — will be based on government mandates in effect at the time of the event," the announcement said.

New Jersey high school sports were allowed to have spectators beginning Feb. 12, and on Feb. 22, Gov. Phil Murphy announced a relaxation of capacity restrictions on large sports and entertainment venues, to 10 percent for those able to hold 5,000 spectators or more. Read more: Gov. Murphy To Allow Spectators At NJ School Sports Amid COVID-19 and NJ To Open Up Sports, Entertainment Venues Amid COVID

The NJSIAA individual wrestling championships have been held at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City for more than 15 years. In 2020, individual championships were held for the girls for the first time.

The wrestling championships were one of the last NJSIAA tournaments to finish in 2020 before the coronavirus pandemic led to shutdowns of sports at every level. The NBA suspended its season indefinitely just days later, and professional and college sports followed in rapid succession.

As the NJSIAA resumed competitions, wrestling season was shifted to March in hopes that transmission levels of the virus would be lower.

“Nothing about this past year has been fair or easy, but given the circumstances, this framework provides our student athletes an opportunity to compete at the highest level,” said Colleen Maguire, the chief operating officer of the NJSIAA. “Ultimately, health data and trends will determine if a tournament of this type will be possible. The formula is simple – the fewer the cases, the more opportunity to compete.”

Because the tournament is being reduced to regions and the state championships, a selection committee will determine participants for both the girls and boys regional competitions.

For girls, eight wrestlers will be seeded per weight class for each of the two regions, while 16 boys will be seeded per weight class in four newly created combined regions (usually there are eight regions for the boys' competition).

For both girls and boys, the wrestlers who place in the top four in their weight class in each region will advance to the state-level competition.

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