Connor O'Neill sometimes felt like his success was working against him.

O'Neill traveled around the country this season to wrestle some of the best competition. Yet each tournament win brought him a little closer to reaching New Jersey's 30-match limit.

For the DePaul junior, that meant another step closer to the bench.

"We're going to Beast of the East and Powerade and getting punished for going there because we get like five matches," said O'Neill, who's committed to Rutgers. "I feel like we should be able to wrestle a little more."

The rule that limits New Jersey high school wrestlers to 30 regular-season matches led to some interesting outcomes this season. Wrestlers can't go over that limit until after Feb. 2, a refresh button for the state team and individual tournament.

The debate over match limits is one that New Jersey wrestlers and coaches grapple with each season. Is the rule too restrictive? Or is it an important step to limiting weight-ins and protecting the safety of student athletes?

The concern about reaching the max played a strange role at the Sam Cali Battle for the Belt back in January. There were "no contests" in a pair of medal matches, where both wrestlers opted not to wrestle.

North Carolina State commit Sammy Alvarez could have taken a free win and earned fifth place at 132 pounds. The only problem for the St. Joseph senior was that simply getting his hand raised for a forfeit would have counted toward his limit.

"You worry about match counts," Green Knights coach Tom Farinaro said. "You worry that you don't have enough kids to put in the lineup to win a dual meet. You got to save them in the tournaments, but you want to get them into the tournaments because that's where the college coaches are watching."

What isn't up for debate is how much the law affected team strategy throughout the season. Coaches often had to make difficult choices on when to use their stars, while also trying to win.

"Sometimes, you go to a tournament and can't tell how many matches you're going to get," Wayne Valley coach Todd Schroeder said. "It really hinders your performance. We're one of the only states that has low match limits."

Staying under the limit

Pompton Lakes coach Scott Mahoney said his wrestlers are aware of the rules in place and don't see a temporary trip to the bench as punishment. Mahoney believes the current system is fair since wrestlers can go past 30 matches after Feb. 2 when the postseason starts. He also warns that more matches could lead to more specialization in high school sports.

"Giving them a break here or there isn't a bad thing," said Mahoney, who also coaches the Cardinal football team. "I think we're at a point now where (the limit is) high enough."

The challenge for Mahoney and other coaches is to map out how the season will develop for each wrestler. He usually packs a full schedule, but knows it won't always play out as expected. A winter storm can wipe out a few matches, but a surprise tournament run can pile them back on.

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Cardinal sophomore Dan Malkinski had to sit twice after a darkhorse run at the Passaic County tournament. There was no guarantee that he would get out of the first round as the No. 8 seed at 170 pounds. But Malkinski wound up with five matches on his way to third place.

"That success earns him a bye in a tournament somewhere next year," Mahoney said. "He'll get a better seed. Next year, he won't have that issue."

Finding a solution

New Jersey is one of the only states with a hard cap on matches. The limit is 40 in California – and even higher in places like Minnesota and Montana – but most governing bodies count in other ways. New York, for example, uses a points system with quads and tournaments weighed more heavily than duals.

It's common in areas around the country for "competition days" or "contests" to be used rather than total matches.

"It's unfortunate when you have to sit a kid for a match just because he's going to hit 31 instead of 30," NV/Old Tappan coach Rob Ortiz said.

"They really learn from match experience. Sometimes in practice, it's just the same thing over and over again. It's hard to focus on actually getting better. But when something goes wrong in a match, especially when you fail in a match, then you can really learn from something."

Coming up with a plan

Coaches must carefully put together lineups with the 30-match limit in mind. Perhaps the most glaring example came at the Sam Cali tournament held last month. St. Joseph won the inaugural event in 2018 and would have been a frontrunner again this year at full strength. But the Green Knights plummeted to 28th out of 36 schools with a number of key starters held out of the lineup.

Farinaro decided to give his team some rest with a challenging dual meet schedule on the horizon. He needed his optimal lineup in January and February to face nine teams ranked in the North Jersey Top 25 and two more in the NJWWA statewide poll.

"It's easy when you have depth," Westwood coach Paul Castellini said. "When you have one or two guys to shuffle around, it's a lot more to manage."

Westwood had its own challenges this season.

Senior Trent Furman was going for the school wins record, so Castellini tried to get him as many opportunities as possible. The Cardinals filled up their schedule and talked throughout the season about sitting starters. But Castellini couldn't stick to the plan after a pair of injuries left Tommy Eboli as one of the only viable options in the middle weights. With a shorter bench, it became harder to write out a lineup as February approached.

"I personally like the dual meet season," Castellini said. "Don't get me wrong, I love the individual time. But there's something about 14 guys wrestling together, the camaraderie of cheering each other on. You don't get that same thing at districts. It's nice, but you don't get that team atmosphere."

The match counts in New Jersey are higher than they once were. In 1998, the limit was raised from 22 to 25 per year. The current setup was adopted about 10 years ago.

There were times when getting to 100 wins was a rare achievement. Now, it's a common benchmark for the sport's best.

"A lot of the guys competing at that top level want to wrestle more than 30 matches," said West Milford's Trevor Fleet, who won this year's Passaic County title at 132.

"But I do think it's appropriate to have that cap. Once you get down to Atlantic City, everyone is all banged up and bruised up."