Point Pleasant Beach's Dylan Kelly Earns a Trip to Atlantic City

Most of the capacity crowd attending the NJSIAA Region VI Individual Wrestling Championships on Saturday, at the Poland Spring Arena in Toms River, watched Point Pleasant Beach senior Dylan Kelly lose an overtime thriller to Manchester’s Anthony Prendimano.

Few thought little of a wrestler from Point Beach losing before the final.

Even those in Kelly’s cheering section knew that this is a venue normally reserved to showcase traditional Shore Conference powers Jackson Memorial, Brick Memorial and Southern Regional.

“Some of my family and friends were even talking about coming here to see Southern and Jackson and Brick Memorial,” Kelly joked.

As far as Kelly was concerned, losing was not an option and before he left Toms River, he made sure he gave his fans something to cheer about before they left as well.

The Point Beach senior and No. 4 seed in the 171-pound weight class bounced back from a 3-1 overtime loss to Prendimano in the semifinals.

He beat back Brick’s Dan Watson 9-1 in the first round of wrestlebacks and punched his ticket to the state championships in Atlantic City this weekend with a 7-3 win over Southern’s Jeff McElwee in the third-place bout.

“After I lost, I went back into it and honestly, I started cheering up right away because remembering back to my freshman year, I never would have imagined having a chance to place in the region and go to states,” Kelly said.

“I remember looking at the state place winners on the wall in our school and just wanting to be part of that and now I’m going to have a chance. It’s amazing.”

The trip to Atlantic City is Kelly’s first after watching the proceedings from the stands in years past.

Kelly was the runner-up in the 171-pound division at last year’s District 23 championships and then failed to place in the top three at the Region VI championships the following weekend.

This year, Kelly won the District 23 title with a win over Brick Memorial’s Anthony Miller and set himself up with the No. 4 seed this past weekend.

Kelly and heavyweight teammate Andrew Gross – who lost both of his bouts at the  region tournament – both won district 23 titles, the first Garnet Gulls to do so since 119-pounder Matt Rega in 2006.

“It makes it mean so much more that I get to represent my school and my program,” Kelly said.

“Pretty much the whole town is here just for me," Kelly said. "I didn’t want to let anybody down and I felt like I did in the semis. But to hear the cheers after I won the last match, it felt great.”

Kelly’s loss to Prendimano meant that he would not become the Garnet Gulls first region champion since 2006 when Rega won the second of two straight championships at 119 pounds, but Kelly responded with his back to the wall.

He dominated in his first match after the loss in scoring a major-decision win over Watson and beat McElwee to capture the bronze medal in Region VI.

The top three place-winners from each region at each weight class earn a spot in the state championships at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, which begin Friday.

“I didn’t know what was going on when I lost,” Kelly said. “This was my first loss of the year and my head is going crazy. My coaches pulled me over and said, ‘It doesn’t matter. We want to get to A.C. and that doesn’t happen unless you get your mindset and win the next match.’ ”

Prendimano went on to lose, 3-0, to Raritan’s Ryan Lynch in the final after surviving the extra session against Kelly.

The overtime did not last long, as Prendimano took Kelly down 15 seconds into the extra period to score the deciding two points. 

“I went back and dominated a kid that I thought I could beat and went into pretty much a do-or-die situation," Kelly said.  "I was just thinking, ‘This is everything I worked for.’ ”

In addition to winning Point Beach’s last region championship, Rega also was  the last Garnet Gulls wrestler  to place in the state final at Boardwalk Hall, finishing seventh at 119 pounds in 2005, his junior year.

Point Beach’s last state champion was 152-pounder Jake Cairns  in 1998, and while Kelly might be a long shot to make an improbable run to the school’s first state championship in 13 years, he feels the bright lights of Atlantic City will bring out the best in him.

“This was a dream of mine ever since I started wrestling varsity,” Kelly said. “I’ve worked so hard to get to where I’m at and I know, going down there next week, I’ll be ready. I’ve prepared for this for four years now and I feel like I can wrestle with the best.”