Caper Tiger junior wrestles way onto podium at individual tournament in Atlantic City
ATLANTIC CITY — The 2025 NJSIAA State Wrestling Championships wrapped up last week at Boardwalk Hall, where veteran wrestlers from Lower Cape May Regional and Ocean City high schools took on the best New Jersey has to offer.
Lower’s Chase Hansen qualified for his third consecutive state tournament after an incredible 38-0 season. The junior earned the No. 5 seed in the 138-pound weight class and finished in fourth place. The three-time defending district and regional champion made a deep run through the consolation bracket to secure a top placement in the biggest tournament of the year.
Hansen powered through his first two opponents in the preliminary rounds with wins via pin and technical fall to send him to the quarterfinals. His quarterfinal matchup was against No. 4 seed Carson Walsh of Pope John XXIII Regional High School, the first of many opponents from powerhouse schools.
Walsh won a 9-6 decision, sending Hansen to the wrestle-back bracket. He kept fighting and rattled off two more wins to reach the wrestle-back semifinals, including a nail-biting 4-2 decision over Bergen Catholic’s Gideon Gonzalez.
One match away from a chance at the podium, Hansen faced off against the reigning 132-pound state champion Adrian DeJesus from St. Joseph Regional in Montvale. The match went by in the blink of an eye as Hansen finished off DeJesus in 55 seconds for his fastest and most dominant win in the tournament.
In the match for third place, Hansen faced off against the bracket’s No. 1 seed in Delbarton School’s Chase Quenault, who also was sent down to the wrestle-ack bracket by Walsh in the semifinals.
The two wrestlers met last year in the state tournament when Hansen eliminated Quenault via a 2-1 decision. This year’s match did not go in Hansen’s favor as he suffered the only takedown of the match and lost via 5-2 decision.
Hansen’s fourth-place finish is his second-best result from the state tournament in his illustrious career. He took home seventh place as a freshman before his dominant sophomore season led him to the podium as a third-place finisher.
The junior, one of the best wrestlers Lower has ever had, will have one more season to push deeper into the state tournament.
Two Ocean City also returned to the state championships as seniors Tommy Grimley and Clifford Dirkes made their second consecutive appearances at Boardwalk Hall. The two leaders of the Red Raiders advanced after strong performances throughout the district and regional tournaments.
Grimley won both the District 29 and Region 8 titles at 165 pounds this season. He dropped only one match the entire season leading up to the state tournament with an impressive 38-1 record.
As the No. 10 seed, Grimley started his run with a quick win via major decision in the preliminaries. After that win, he was quickly thrown into a slower-paced match against Tyler Whitford. Grimley never gained control in the match and was sent into wrestle-backs by Whitford via 8-2 decision.
Coming off only his second loss of the year, Grimley got back on track in his subsequent matches. In his first match of wrestle-backs, he shut out North Bergen’s Yorraimy Vasquez in a 12-0 major decision.
He had a nearly identical performance in his next match when he came out on top of West Deptford’s Caleb Jackson with another major decision.
In the final match to reach the top eight, he battled Cole Stangle of St. John Vianney in a tightly contested bout. The low-scoring affair came down to the final round, when either wrestler could have won, but Stangle secured the 6-4 decision that ended Grimley’s run through the lower bracket.
Grimley had been consistently excellent the entire season with most wins coming in a dominant fashion. In his final season at Ocean City, Grimley finished 41-3 and tied for ninth place at the state championship.
Dirkes also earned a spot at the tournament. Ocean City’s anchor punched his ticket to Atlantic City after finishing in second place in both the district and regional tournaments. His 33-2 record helped him get the seventh seed in the 285-pound bracket.
Dirkes pinned his first opponent Nick Duarte in 3:30 for a quick win in the preliminaries to build up some momentum. His next match against Mason Brancato went smoothly for Dirkes as he led wire to wire for a 12-4 major decision.
The senior did not get to stay in the upper bracket for much longer as the No. 2 seed Christian Alvarez of St. Joseph took down Dirkes in the quarterfinals. Despite a strong start the tournament, he lost to Alvarez via major decision after never being able to break through his opponents’s strong defense.
Dirkes’ first match of the single-elimination wrestle-backs was against Isaac Cazimovski of Clifton High School for the right to advance to the top eight. Dirkes overwhelmed his opponent in the second round and picked up another win via pin that also was a career milestone for Dirkes.
With the win over Cazimovski, Dirkes secured his best placement ever at the state tournament. He finished in ninth place last year as a junior before breaking through to the top eight this season.
After reaching the wrestle-back quarterfinals, Dirkes could not keep up his momentum throughout his last two matches. He was taken down by Ben Szuba of Brick Memorial in a technical fall that sent him to the seventh-place consolation match, where he was eliminated.
Tom Borgia from West Morris High School knocked off Dirkes in the match via major decision. The Ocean City senior finished his final season in eighth place in the state championship.
Dirkes leaves Ocean City as 2024 district and regional champion and had racked up more than 100 career wins during his time as a Raider.
By WILLIAM TRUITT/For the Star and Wave
