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 first reader's poll of the season to select the top local wrestler for December is Toms River South junior Riley Cheong, who began the season with a perfect 9-0 record that included an individual tournament title.

As a sophomore, Cheong went 21-7 and finished second at the District 28 Tournament. He began this season by winning four bouts at the Ronald Bond Memorial Round Robin, taking down George Gonzalez-Perez of Glenn High School (NC) with an 18-3 technical fall, winning by 14-3 major decision over Sterling's Josh Lopez, defeated Eastern's Jacob Brocious 8-2 and topping Haddonfield's Colin Price by 15-6 major decision.

Cheong backed that up with an impressive showing at the Walter Woods Tournament where he captured the 138-pound championship. Cheong won by fall over Jackson Liberty's Peter Colon in the first round and then pinned Holy Spirit's Patrick Newman in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, Cheong edged Jackson Memorial's Carsten Digiantomasso, 3-1 in sudden victory overtime. He finished off the tournament with a 4-2 decision over Monroe's Andrew Lombard, a District 20 medalist.

Cheong closed out the month of December with a 10-6 win over Southern's Nick Pepe, a Region 8 qualifier. He has since added a victory over Central's Curtis Lively to improve to 10-0.

With the heavy snowstorm blanketing New Jersey, especially the Jersey Shore, all of Thursday and Friday's wrestling action has been postponed. Toms River South will get back on the mat Saturday at the Elizabeth Minutemen Tournament.

Cheong won the first Wrestler of the Week vote of the season by garnering 27.17 percent of the vote, topping Barnegat's Sean Foley and Lacey's Luke Gauthier, who finished second and third, respectively.

 

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