Upon a quick glance of archived high school wrestling scores across New Jersey over the past 12 months, a 21-point victory for Bridgewater-Raritan High School over Bernards High School on January 31, 2025, may not stand out right away.
Especially given it was one of a program-record 21 victories for the Panthers alone in the 2024-25 season, when Bridgewater-Raritan reached the state finals for the first time ever as a team before sending four of their wrestlers to Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.
But on that Friday night just under one year ago, not only was it Senior Night for the Panthers’ eight accomplished wrestlers of the Class of 2025.
History was then made by Bridgewater-Raritan senior Paige Karp.
According to Panthers head coach Kyle Murphy after that match, Karp’s ensuing bout against then-sophomore Gabrielle Reudy of Bernards made her the first girl to ever wrestle varsity for Bridgewater-Raritan.
Even though Bridgewater-Raritan mathematically clinched the match victory before this bout and Karp ultimately was defeated by pin in 3:23, the packed crowd at Vaughn Stapleton Gymnasium was arguably at its loudest during this monumental bout.
“I got back into wrestling my junior year last year,” explained Paige, whose opponent that night: Reudy, was also the first ever female wrestler from Bernards High School. “I went to Princeton’s camp and went to Rutgers, and I just tried my hardest to improve as much as I could over the summer. Last year was my first year back, so I did not do that great.”
“But coming back my senior year, now I have to stand up for my girls.”
To be exact, four more girls in 2025-26 for Bridgewater-Raritan than all of last year, when Karp was the lone girl on the Panthers’ roster.
Now a team captain as part of the Panthers’ five-member squad, Karp made even more noise on Saturday morning during a quad match featuring Bridgewater-Raritan High School, Emerson High School / Park Ridge High School, New Providence High School, and Northern Valley Regional High School at Old Tappan.
During the day’s lone girls’ wrestling match featuring Bridgewater-Raritan (5-0) and Emerson / Park Ridge, Karp took the mat for two bouts and found herself behind early in each of them. Both times, she completed comebacks for Bridgewater-Raritan: once by pin, and then by decision, to propel the Panthers to a 15-6 victory Saturday, January 24, at Vaughn Stapleton Gymnasium in Bridgewater.
“The first match, I had a ton of energy, but I had like 10 minutes to get ready for the second one,” revealed afterwards by Paige, who first flipped a four-point deficit into a win by fall in 5:06 before then rallying from a six-point deficit and shutout in her second bout with seven straight points in the final minute to win by 7-6 decision. “I remembered I was in a wrestling match and I had to do something. I was on the bottom doing nothing, but then I got in position for a Merkle."
“I did it, and I hit that seven-point move.”
Wrestling with Paige on the girls’ side this season are Journie Ford, Madison Kelly, Bramayha Linares Rivera, and Brianna Soriano.
After trailing by five points at the end of the first period, Kelly rounded off the scoring for Bridgewater-Raritan with a takedown into a pin in 2:30 against Emerson / Park Ridge.
These performances vaulted Bridgewater-Raritan to a perfect 5-0 record in dual matches and came six days after the Panthers competed at the Queen of the Mat girls’ wrestling tournament at the Thomas Dunn Center, where Bridgewater-Raritan took seventh place despite only sending four wrestlers to this event Sunday, January 18, in Elizabeth.
Karp (120) and Linares Rivera (152) both took third place in their respective brackets, while Soriano (145) took fourth place, and Kelly (107) took sixth place.
A huge stretch for a Bridgewater-Raritan girls’ squad that was just one wrestler deep last year in Karp, who advanced to last year’s 2025 NJSIAA Girls’ Wrestling North 2 Region Tournament in Union.
And in general, for a sport in girls’ wrestling continuing to grow in the Garden State, notably coupled with a vote scheduled for May to make flag football the 35th sanctioned sport by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA).
According to the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), in the 2018-19 season, New Jersey became the 14th state in the nation and first state in the Mid-Atlantic region to launch girls’ wrestling. That academic year also marked the first ever NJSIAA State Individual Girls’ Wrestling Tournament, which recently returned to Atlantic City’s prestigious Boardwalk Hall: a century-old venue that has served as host to the NJSIAA State Individual Boys’ Wrestling Tournament since 2000.
After Boardwalk Hall was the site of the girls’ state championships for the first two seasons of sanctioned girls’ wrestling in New Jersey, the tournament moved to Phillipsburg High School until moving back to Atlantic City starting in the 2022-23 season.
During the girls’ state tournament’s brief stint at Phillipsburg, which is just across the Delaware River from Pennsylvania, Grace Kaczanowski: a Class of 2022 graduate of Bridgewater-Raritan High School, qualified for this event multiple times with the Panthers. According to Bridgewater-Raritan head coach Kyle Murphy last year, while she did not make the Panthers’ varsity lineup, she stood on the podium as a fifth-place finisher at the girls’ state tournament in both 2021 and 2022.
As a further testament to the growth of girls’ wrestling since then, 144 girls’ wrestlers: 12 in each weight class, closed out their girls’ wrestling seasons with state individual tournament berths at Boardwalk Hall.
“Being a big supporter of women’s sports, this is awesome to see,” continued about the growth of girls’ wrestling by Kyle Murphy, who is the brother of Bridgewater-Raritan High School Class of 2014 graduate and U.S. Women’s Soccer Olympic Gold Medalist Casey Murphy. “We want to see our program grow, but we have already gone from one girl to five girls, and I know there are multiple girls in our middle school and recreation programs. The program is going to continue to grow here at Bridgewater-Raritan, especially with leaders like Grace who was a state placer twice.”
Since Kaczanowski’s state tournament runs took place at Phillipsburg High School, Bridgewater-Raritan will now try to make even more history on the girls’ side – by sending its first girls’ wrestlers to Boardwalk Hall.
With Paige Karp leading the way, it is only a matter of time before that happens for Bridgewater-Raritan High School.
“Paige is a great leader of our girls’ program and is setting our standard so high,” praised Coach Murphy, who is a Panthers' Class of 2016 alum, state placer, and now in his fifth season in charge at Bridgewater-Raritan. “She is the only upperclassman we have out of five girls, and she is having an outstanding season. We’re excited to see her grow and be leaders for future girls who come through our program. She is great in the wrestling room, and she even pushes our boys to work harder.”
“It’s exciting to see.”
That includes Paige's younger brother: Hunter, who is in the middle of a productive debut season as a freshman on the boys’ side.
“It helps me know what I can look up to and what my future could be,” Hunter said of being inspired by his older sister punctuating her legacy at Bridgewater-Raritan High School during her final year on campus. “Practice can be hard, but our coaches are good wrestlers who have taught us good technique.”
“I’ve learned that there are way better people than me right now, but I can also be really good if I put in the work.”
At 106 pounds, Hunter took two of his three bouts for Bridgewater-Raritan on Saturday morning: one by forfeit in the Panthers’ opener against New Providence, and the other in his third and final bout of the day by pin in 0:45 against Northern Valley Old Tappan.
“My entire house is all about wrestling,” Paige said.
“If I don’t have a match on a given day, it’s always about Hunter.”
In addition to Bridgewater-Raritan’s 15-6 victory over Emerson / Park Ridge on the girls’ side, the Panthers’ boys’ squad rolled to a 71-12 victory over New Providence and pulled away for a 45-27 victory over Northern Valley Old Tappan. As part of a sweep of the day for Emerson / Park Ridge, it rallied late to defeat Bridgewater-Raritan by a score of 39-32, but the Panthers’ girls’ match set the tone for their remaining boys’ matchups against Emerson / Park Ridge and Northern Valley Old Tappan.
With February now on the horizon, including the beginning of the team and individual state tournaments, Paige will now try and lead Bridgewater-Raritan towards even more history to close out her career.
Based on the 2025-26 NJSIAA Girls’ Wrestling Team Tournament Regulations, which defines a dual meet as a match with a minimum of seven (7) bouts wrestled, it appears Bridgewater-Raritan may not be eligible for the team tournament since none of its matches have gone beyond four (4) total bouts wrestled. However, it will have an opportunity to compete at the NJSIAA Girls’ Wrestling Individual Tournament, which will start with the District 6 Girls’ Wrestling Tournament Sunday, March 1, at South Plainfield High School in South Plainfield. The top four place winners here will advance to the North 2 Region Girls’ Wrestling Tournament, which will be contested Sunday, March 8, at Union High School in Union.
The top four place winners at each region tournament will advance to the state championships, which take place on both the girls’ and boys’ sides from Thursday, March 12, through Saturday, March 14, at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.
Next up for Bridgewater-Raritan will be a home match against Phillipsburg High School at 6 p.m. Wednesday, January 28, at Vaughn Stapleton Gymnasium in Bridgewater. The Panthers will then compete in the Bound Brook Lady Crusaders Jamboree at 9 a.m. Sunday, February 1, at Bound Brook High School in Bound Brook to launch the last full month of the 2025-26 season.
One that Bridgewater-Raritan will have plenty to build off of, regardless of how far it extends for its girls’ squad that will only continue to grow.
“I’m super excited, because it was just me last year, but now we have five girls on our team and you don’t know how many there are going to be next year,” Paige concluded.
“Hopefully in the next few years, we’ll have a full team.”