AGONIZINGLY SHORT: Caper Tigers fall to Rumson by just two points in state title match

Posted: February 23rd 2026

By BRIAN CUNNIFF

CapeAtlanticLive.com

PISCATAWAY – A program that brought itself and its community a number of shining moments and thrilling accomplishments over the past few seasons is now dealing with heartache.

The Lower Cape May Regional High School wrestling team fell agonizingly short in its quest to bring home its first state championship when it lost, 35-33, to Rumson-Fair Haven in the Group II title match Sunday at Rutgers University.

For Rumson-Fair Haven, the victory clinched its third straight state championship.

“Things didn’t go our way today,” Lower coach Billy Damiana said. “That’s the nature of the beast.”

With the teams each winning seven bouts, the result of the match came down to bonus points.

“We didn’t save bonus points in certain areas and we didn’t get bonus points in some areas,” Damiana said. “It’s a tough pill to swallow.”

Many close observers felt the coin flip would be a major factor in how the match transpired. Rumson-Fair Haven won the flip and was better equipped to move wrestlers around to get more favorable matchups.

Lower also went into the match without one of its key middle-weight wrestlers in Dom Marrero, who suffered an injury in practice the day before.

“They got pretty much every matchup that they needed,” Damiana said. “We had a lot of adversity we had to get through today and we couldn’t weather the storm in certain areas.”

Lower Cape May earned victories by fall from Tristan Rosemeyer (113), Chase Hansen (138) and David Douglass (215). All were executed in less than 45 seconds. The Tigers also earned points through a technical fall by Ryan Morgan (132), a major decision by Nolan Mormello (126) and decisions by Bryce Paley (120) and Jake Hearon (285). Paley’s victory came in a tiebreaker.

Mormello wrestled in the final bout against a solid opponent in Rumson’s Henry Marshall, who entered the bout with 19 victories on the season. Mormello needed a pin to create a tie, which would have given Lower the team victory through criteria. Mormello wrestled beautifully and controlled most of the bout, but couldn’t turn Marshall to his back and ultimately had to settle for an 8-0 major decision.

Lower (22-4) has built its program considerably. The Caper Tigers have been in sectional title matches in three straight seasons, winning twice. This was the program’s first appearance in a state title match.

“We’ve never been here before,” said Damiana, a former multiple-time state qualifier as a wrestler at Lower who’s now in his ninth season as head coach. “We’ve built something over the last nine years now. There were a lot of programs ahead of us. We’ve had to slowly climb our way.

“We have water on three sides of us down where we are. We had to get more kids interested in wrestling. We’ve had to travel far to continue to get great training and good competition. I’m really happy with what we’ve done and how hard the kids have worked. 

“But what happened today, this is going to be hard to get over.”

Lower will now turn its attention to the individual postseason, which begins with the District 32 Tournament at Paulsboro this weekend. The Caper Tigers have a number of wrestlers expected to compete for district and region titles.

(Cape Atlantic Live’s Nick Kosko contributed to this story.)