Shay Addison of Fair Haven won the New Jersey Scholastic State Wrestling Championship for 65-pound Bantams (ages 8 and under) held at Union High School. Shay, a member of the Triumph Wrestling Club, is the first wrestler from the Rumson-Fair Haven (RFH) area to win a state title.
To participate in the state championship, a wrestler must place in the top three at one of eight qualifying tournaments held throughout New Jersey in January and February. From those events, the top 24 wrestlers in their age and weight group moved on to March 16.
Addison, who had a first-round bye, won four matches en route to the championship. He parlayed an early takedown to a 2-0 victory over D.J. DiPietro from Intensity Wrestling in West Deptford, in the 65- pound finals.
The Fair Haven wrestler survived an overtime match in the quarterfinals, defeating Piscataway’s Kendall Jordan, 2-0.
During the 2012-13 season, Addison wrestled for the RFH Junior Wrestling team coached by Tom and Andrew Skove. The RFH team enjoyed a very successful season in winning its Jersey Shore Division championship, as well as producing eight individual place winners and three division champions — Theo Addison (122 pounds) Jamie Laughinghouse (107 pounds) and Shay Addison (64 pounds). The RFH Junior Bulldogs program is also paying dividends at the high school level, with two ex-Junior Bulldogs and current Triumph wrestlers, putting Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School on the map in 2013. Marcus Iwama (126 pounds), who has compiled a remarkable 65-5 record in his first two years at Rumson-Fair Haven, was second in the NJSIAA District 22 tournament and third in Region 6, qualifying for the state individual tournament. Cole Bisaccia (106 pounds) went 23-9 in his sophomore campaign and became the first Rumson-Fair Haven district wrestling champion since 2003.