Big Frog of Monmouth Wrestler of the Week: Howell’s Shane Reitsma

Every week this season, Shore Conference wrestling fans will have their chance to vote for the Big Frog Shore Conference Wrestler of the Week on our website.

The winner of the Week 2 (Jan. 1 - Jan. 7) readers' vote for the Shore Conference Wrestler of the Week is Howell sophomore Shane Reitsma, who, in his only bout of the week, went up a weight and scored an impressive major decision against state-ranked Zach Mafaro of Kittatinny to help the Rebels roll to an emphatic 53-14 win over the Cougars.

Howell entered the match ranked No. 3 in New Jersey by NJ.com while Kittatinny made the drive from Newton as the No. 19 team in New Jersey. Howell fell behind 12-4 after three bouts but it was all Rebels after that as they finished with 11 wins in 14 bouts, including 10 wins that secured bonus points.

Reitsma, who was the Region 6 170-pound champion as a freshman last season and reached the fourth round of wrestlebacks (one win away from a state medal) at the NJSIAA Championships, moved up to 182 pounds to face Mafaro, who was the Region 1 third-place finisher at 195 pounds and reached the second round of wrestlebacks at the state tournament.

Reitsma led 2-1 after the first period and really started to find his offense in the second period with a reversal and two takedowns to take a 9-5 lead. He continued to pile up points in the third period with three more takedowns and a reversal to finish off a 20-11 major decision.

Reitsma is 11-0 this season and 53-2 in his young yet already distinguished high school career. He has seven pins, one technical fall and one major decision so far this season. In addition to the win over Mafaro, Reitsma also has wins over state qualifiers Brandon Green of Paulsboro and Kyle Hillermeier of Freehold Township.

Reitsma secured 37.12 percent of the vote to win a close race at the top with Raritan's Ethan Wolf and Brick Memorial's Caleb Alvarado.

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