Manalapan’s Mike Gaeta earned All-American honors in his freshman year at Springfield College, Mass., by finishing fifth at the NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships held in Dubuque, Iowa. Gaeta wrestled at 141 pounds and went 5-2 at the championships. He defeated seventh-seeded Jeff Patzke from Luther College, 12-6, in the fifth-place match. Gaeta was seeded eighth in his weight class going into the championships.
Gaeta qualified for the nationals by the New England College Conference Wrestling Association Championships. Springfield College won the conference championship for the seventh time in the last eight years. The former Manalapan star concluded his frosh season with a 31-17 overall record. At Manalapan High School, Gaeta graduated as the school’s all-time winningest wrestler (101 wins) and was a four-time NJSIAA District 21 champion. In his senior year, he added the Region VI crown to his resume and was a place-winner at the NJSIAA championships.
Anthony Zaharakis did something that no wrestler from the Manalapan-Englishtown Middle School has done before — he won three championships in one season. The eighth-grader, who wrestled at 158 pounds for MEMS, won the Monmouth County title, as well as the Monmouth-Middlesex Tournament of Champions and Monmouth-Middlesex-Ocean Tournament of Champions crowns.