Today marks the return of The Trentonian’s weekly high school wrestling package that will appear in Tuesday’s paper throughout the remainder of the season. The first installment of the New Jersey Public School state rankings will appear next week following more research to publish a top 10. Pick ing the first seven or so is not a problem, but from there it’s a matter of a lot of conjecture. In addition, there will be a look at how things appear to be shaping up for the group state championships that at last check will be held at a site yet to be determined. In the meantime, The Trentonian’s Area Top 15 does make its season debut, although once again it’s hard to get much of a reading on some of the teams because of limited dual match action. Sitting in the top spot once again is North Hunterdon. The Lions do have five losses, but you can attribute those to wrestling by far the toughest schedule in the area. For instance, defending Group 4 state champion North Hunterdon has a very respectable 36-29 loss to three-time defending Group 5  state champion Southern. Over the weekend it lost to rebuilt Howell, 34-29, in the Boresch Duals at Newton. Its other losses were to Delbarton as well as teams from Connecticut and Ohio. Delbarton, by the way, is ranked sixth in the country in one poll. Next up is defending Group I group state champion Delaware Valley. Andy Fitz’s team is off to an 8-0 start and although it barely won its own tournament and finished a very close second behind St. Joe’s Metuchen in the John Goles Tourney at Warren Hills, the thing to keep in mind is DelVal is probably a better dual-match team than a tournament team because of its balance as opposed to so-called star power. At this point, you certainly have to like DelVal’s chances to win a fourth group championship in five years. Next up in the top 10 are Burlington County’s No. 3 Seneca and No. 4 Rancocas Valley. These two have already met with Seneca posting a 42-30 victory. Seneca also got the job done over the weekend in the “Indian School” Duals by beating Lenape (53-21), Cherokee (63-16) and Shawnee (42-32). What was a little bit of a head scratcher is Lenape beat Shawnee, 42-34, resulting in it being ranked sixth and one spot ahead  of the Renegades. In between RV and Lenape is No. 5 Hopewell Valley. Here’s a perfect example of a team that’s a little hard to gauge at the moment. Hopewell Valley was shut down all of last week because of skin issues. There are other teams that have also run into the same problem, including Phillipsburg having to cancel against Mt. Olive. A P-Burg-Mt. Olive match would have provided a few clues about the Group 4 picture because those two are among the major contenders along with North Hunterdon. Hopewell was to have wrestled Steinert on Friday, but that match was postponed and its first dual-match test on the Colonial Valley Conference front will be against improved Allentown next week. To date, Hopewell’s best result was a 51-18 victory over Monroe, which just beat Robbinsville over the weekend. As it stands right now, rounding out the Area Top 10 are No. 8 Robbinsville, No. 9 Steinert and No. 10 Hightstown. Robbinsville has five losses, but is another team that’s wrestled a difficult schedule. Among the teams that have beaten the Ravens are Delaware Valley, Monroe, Lacey and Ocean Township, 40-39, on criteria. On the plus side for Dan Hughes’ Robbinsville team, it did beat Hightstown, 46-30. In the highlight match in the CVC this week, Robbinsville will be at Allentown Wednesday night. Steinert is off to a 7-0 start and its top win came on Saturday when it beat Allentown, 39-31. With a balanced lineup and a good amount of experienced wrestlers, the Spartans bear watching and are clearly a threat to Hightstown in the CVC’s Colonial Division. For its part, Hightstown is also off to another strong start with a 9-2 record. Its other loss was to Middletown South (7-1). MILESTONES For those who might have missed it, Lawrence coach Chris Lynne reached the 400-win mark last week and has since added three more victories to put him at 403. Lynne is now 61 years old and it certainly appears he plans to take dead aim at reaching the rarified 500-win mark. “What the (heck),” he replied when asked about 500. “I have another six years in me and plan to retire from coaching and work when I turn 67.  It (reaching 400 wins) was not something I thought about, but why not (go for 500)?” In terms of career wins while coaching a Mercer County school, Lynne stands atop the list. Hightstown’s Mike Russo is in second at 381 and Hopewell Valley’s Mario Harpel has 350. There is, however, a caveat with Harpel because he also had some wins while coaching Springboro in Ohio and McCorristin in Mercer County. As such, he is the winningest coach Mercer County coach with a total of 407. Also high on the CVC list of career wins was former Notre Dame coach Gary “The Brain” Dambro. His final total remains unknown because Dambro isn’t telling, but at this point it certainly appears he’s been surpassed by Harpel, Lynne and Russo. In terms of the area, the all-time leader is former Delran coach Dennis “The Menace” Smith, who complied a record of 604-196-5. Ex-Hunterdon Central coach Russ “Czar” Riegel is next with 533 wins, although his total is actually 469 if you don’t count his controversial “B” team victories. Delaware Valley is also on course to make more history. Fitz has 313 wins and coupled with the 284 wins of his father, Vince Fitz, they will have a combined 600 wins shortly. Furthermore, DelVal needs just 15 more wins to reach the 900 mark as a program. The exact number of other programs that have reached 900 is unclear, but it can be reported others that have done it are Paulsboro, Phillipsburg, Hunterdon Central, Roselle Park and Collingswood. Trentonian Wrestling  Area Top 15 Rankings 1. North Hunterdon (4-5) 2. Delaware Valley (8-0) 3. Seneca (4-0) 4. Rancocas Valley (6-2) 5. Hopewell Valley (3-1) 6. Lenape (2-1) 7. Shawnee (4-2) 8. Robbinsville (5-5) 9. Steinert (7-0) 10. Hightstown (9-2) 11. Hunterdon Central (2-3) 12. Allentown (2-1) 13. Delran (1-0) 14. Northern Burlington (5-4) 15. Cinnaminson (2-2) HIGHLIGHT MATCHES Tuesday: Shawnee at Northern Burlington. Wednesday: Robbinsville at Allentown; Hunterdon Central at Delaware Valley; North Hunterdon at Phillipsburg. Friday: Rancocas Valley at Camden Catholic. Saturday: Robbinsville at Northern Burlington quad; Hunterdon/Warren/Sussex Tournament at Phillipsburg. ...read more read less