FINAL TOP 10 (and an explanation)

While it may be easy to pick a first team for all area wrestling, choosing the area's Top 10 teams isn't so clear.

This year's final top team was pretty clear -- it was District 12 champ South Plainfield (14-4) which beat Delaware Valley 34-20. South Plainfield made it to the Central Group II final where it lost to Brearley. The Tigers were also runnersup at the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament. It wasn't a terrific season for the Tigers, but they were good enough to be our top team.

Now, here was the trick.

Number 2?

North Hunterdon beat Delaware Valley, but Delaware Valley beat Hunterdon Central, which beat North Hunterdon.

I went with Delaware Valley with these tiebreakers -- the Terriers (18-5) made it to the Central Group II sectional final where it wrestled well in a loss to Long Branch. The Terriers also won the District 17 title for the fourth straight year and finished second at the last Hunterdon/Warren Tournament to Phillipsburg. Del Val also wrestled well against Phillipsburg, losing 37-16.

North Hunterdon (14-5) earns the third spot -- two ahead of Hunterdon Central -- because the Lions (13-5) got to the North 2 Group IV final where it lost to Phillipsburg and the win over Del Val. The Lions also beat Watchung Hills twice. Watchung Hills beat Hunterdon Central early in the season.

Watchung Hills (21-6) is fourth since it won the Somerset County Tournament, beat Hunterdon Central Central and finished with a school record for dual meet wins with 21. The Warriors also finished second at District 12.

Hunterdon Central (13-9) is fifth. The Red Devils were 8-9 going into the final week of the regular season. Nice job beating North and the Red Devils beat Livingston, Nutley, J.P. Stevens, Somerville and Plainfield to finish the year. Hunterdon Central should be pretty good next year.

Hillsborough (16-13) is sixth in the final poll. The Raiders won District 18 and beat Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament and North 2 Group III champ Sayreville during the year. What hurt Hillsborough? The 34-25 loss to Hunterdon Central, a 39-32 loss to North Warren and a 29-23 setback to Skyland East champ Watchung Hills. Those are three close losses.

Montgomery (17-8) is seventh. The Cougars had an outstanding second year of varsity competition. The Cougars were proud of beating Bound Brook, Somerville and Bridgewater-Raritan. But their biggest fesat was making it to the North 2 Group III sectional final. That's what gets them a seventh. They did lose to Ridge, which didn't make the Top 10.

Somerville (14-14). The Pioneers, seventh in the Top 10, got a state champ in senior 125-pounder Jim Kirchner and finished second -- ahead of Bound Brook and behind Hillsborough -- at District 18. The Pioneers were seventh at December's Somerset County Tournament. Nice progress.

Bound Brook (10-15). 10-15? Well, you might not have seen it since the boxscores never ran in our paper the day after -- but the ninth-ranked Crusaders finished the dual meet season Feb. 16 by beating Middlesex, Lodi and Scotch Plains-Fanwood. The Crusaders were not a good dual meet team. But they did have a rugged schedule and finished third at the Somerset County and District 18 tournaments. That final day in the regular season pushes them into ninth.

Scotch Plains-Fanwood (14-14). The Raiders beat Ridge in the North 2 Group III quarterfinals. That's all I had to go on. Despite Ridge's 20-win season, I had to go with Scotch Plains-Fanwood on the strength of its 37-27 win over Ridge and an early-season 38-28 win over Bridgewater-Raritan, which beat Ridge.