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A bronze medal winner twice, Kinnelon's Kayla Vazquez upgraded to gold in the state tournament.

Vazquez, Georges, Weiss are golden

ATLANTIC CITY _ Paige Weiss changed up her approach and got rewarded for it. Kayla Vazquez stayed the course and also ended up with a positive result. Olivia Georges navigated from a completely fresh angle and wound up on top of the heap, too. Sparta's Weiss at 100 pounds, Kinnelon's Vazquez at 132 pounds and DePaul Catholic's Georges at 145 pounds all claimed gold medals in different ways. But the troika of locals from Morris and Sussex Counties achieved their ultimate goals in the fifth annual New Jersey Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) State Girls Wrestling Tournament on Saturday, March 4th…
Kayla Vazquez of Kinnelon is headed back to Atlantic City for the Girls Wrestling State Tournament finals.

Local trio seeking gold at state finals

PHILLIPSBURG _  Sparta's Paige Weiss, Kinnelon's Kayla Vazquez and Newton/Kittatinny's Liliana Zaku-Ramos all made the penultimate step to mat glory on Sunday, Feb. 26. Next comes the biggest stage of all, the New Jersey State Girls Wrestling Finals on Saturday, March 4 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. The Northwest Jersey triple-threat troika of Weiss at 100 pounds, Vazquez at 132 pounds and Zaku-Ramos at 126 pounds all won their state tournament semifinal bouts at Phillipsburg High School on Feb. 26 and need one more win down in Atlantic City next weekend to mine a gold medal. Weiss, a freshman,…
Boonton's Samira Kupa, left, prevailed in the 145-pound weight class at the Bergen County Women's Coaches Association Tournament.

Kupa, Lee, Vazquez shine at BCWCA event

SUFFERN, N.Y. _ Kayla Vazquez kept her wits about her and impactfully delivered a crunching mid-season mat statement. Vazquez, Kinnelon's standout junior, earned a hard-fought 4-1 victory over another top-shelf competitor, Boonton sophomore Julia Fongaro, in the 132-pound final at the Bergen County Women's Coaches Association (BCWCA) Invitational Wrestling Tournament on Sunday, Jan. 22 at Rockland County Community College. Vazquez earned a third-place finish at the previous two state tournaments while Fongaro took a silver medal in the 126-pound class at last year's state tournament at Phillipsburg High School, falling in the final to Maya Hemo, who pinned the Bomber…
Julia Fongaro of Boonton finished second at the NJSIAA Girls State Wrestling Championships in 2022. Fongaro, a freshman, was pinned by Maya Hemo of Cherry Hill East in the title bout.

Fongaro of Boonton is state runnerup

    PHILLIPSBURG _ Julia Fongaro of Boonton was on the edge of a career-defining victory, less than a half-minute away from having her hand raised as a state champion.   Suddenly, within seconds, everything changed. Still, the never-rattled Fongaro stayed calm and collected after the title bout and looked to more successful outcomes in her very promising future.   Cherry Hill East's Maya Hemo rallied from a 1-0 deficit with less than 50 seconds remaining in the final period to earn a pin in 5:32 over Fongaro, a freshman sensation, in the 126-pound final at the Fourth Annual NJSIAA State…
Kayla Vazquez of Kinnelon claimed the 126-pound title at the North Region Championships on Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022.

Colts' Vazquez claims North Region title

  FRANKLIN _ It was a special day for Kayla Vazquez, a very skillful and artistically sound sophomore, and a trio of talented Boonton freshmen at the North Region Girls Wrestling Championships on Saturday, Feb. 12.   The Colts' Vazquez took first place at 126 pounds and the Bombers' Julia Fongaro and Samira Kupa earned silver medals at the region tournament, which was held at Franklin Township High School.   The top four finishers in each of the 12 weight classes advanced to the fourth annual state wrestling tournament, scheduled for Phillipsburg High School on Sunday, Feb. 20. More than…
Carley Anderson displays the silver medal she received for her standout effort in the 128-pound weight class at the state tournament.

Marauders' Anderson is state runner-up

PHILLIPSBURG _ Mount Olive's Carley Anderson gave it everything she had but Emma Matera had a little more in reserve and a bit more energy remaining in the tank. Matera, a junior representing Delran, pinned Anderson, a senior, in 1:23 in the 128-pound championship at the third annual NJSIAA Girls State Wrestling Tournament on Saturday, April 10 at Phillipsburg High School. "I just gave it my best and she came through with the one big move that helped turn around the bout," said the second-seeded Anderson. In the North Region final at 135 pounds at Union High School a week…

Petzinger's title twice as nice

ATLANTIC CITY _ Sydney Petzinger artfully and powerfully carved out her own specially orchestrated major piece of school and Morris County history. Petzinger became the first-ever two-time state champion in the Parsippany school district and one of the special few from Morris County to ever win a pair of New Jersey scholastic wrestling titles. A junior 100-pounder, Petzinger methodically and fundamentally worked for a pin in 5:01 over Princeton High School freshman and second-seeded Ava Rose as she punched her ticket to Garden State wrestling immortality in the second-ever state girls wrestling tournament 100-pound final on Saturday, March 7 at…
Sydney Petzinger, left, is pictured in a practice in February 2019.

North Region Wrestling

UNION _ Sydney Petzinger displayed dominance in every facet of her many-pronged mat repertoire. Dispatching her opponents with four consecutive pins in a combined time of 6:25, Petzinger, a junior from Parsippany High School, earned her second straight North Region girls wrestling championship at 100 pounds at Union High School on Sunday, Feb. 23. In the final at 100, Petzinger took down Isabella Santos of Elizabeth for a fall in 1:35 and wound up winning most outstanding wrestler honors at the tournament that played to a full house of over 1,500 fans. Petzinger thus qualifies for the state tournament that…

Another fine showing for Hubmaster

ELMWOOD PARK _  A determined and focused Kiera Hubmaster just keeps racking up the wins on the long and winding road back to Atlantic City. Hubmaster, Kittatinny's powerful sophomore, pinned Elmwood Park's Maria Taseva (state place-winner last year) in 1:28 in the 180-pound final at at the first annual Bergen County Women's Coaches Association (BCWCA) Invitational girls wrestling tournament on Sunday, Jan. 5th at Elmwood Park High School. A year ago, in the initial girls wrestling season in New Jersey, Hubmaster made it all the way to the 235-pound final where she was edged by Kaila Mungo of Rancocas Valley,…
Sydney Petzinger, a sophomore from Parsippany, captured the 100-pound title at the inaugural 2019 State Girls Wrestling Tournament.

Red Hawks Petzinger a state champ

ATLANTIC CITY _ For Sydney Petzinger, it was a classically-trained performance for the ages. Parsippany's Petzinger, showing the technique of an artist like Leonardo da Vinci or Michelangelo or Rembrandt or a painter and sculptor like Pablo Picasso or a musical composer like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart or Ludwig van Beethoven, wove a beautifully-styled mastery of her craft on the mats at Boardwalk Hall. A 15-year-old sophomore, Petzinger earned the 100-pound gold medal Saturday, March 2 with a dominating performance in the state tournament girls wrestling finals as she powered to a 10-0 major decision verdict over Allentown's Jasmine Aizley. This was…
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