Nashua Cathiolic Junior High School wrestler Tyler Ponte won the competitive 96-pound weight class championship at the 7th Annual “War at the South Jersey Shore” National Folkstyle Wrestling Championships over Easter weekend.

Over 1,600 wrestlers from 20 different states competed in this national event.

On his way to the championship of this prestigious tourney, Ponte went 5-0 – defeating a Maryland wrestler, a two-time New Jersey state champion and the Connecticut state champion who is nearing the end of his youth wrestling career with his fourth national title.

As a Top 8 finisher, Ponte earned All-American status, as he had in previous years.

An eighth grader from Pepperell, Mass., Ponte’s superior performance on the mat and in the classroom earned him admission to the freshman class at Wyoming Seminary, a New Jersey secondary school with a nationally ranked prep wrestling program.