State Wrestling Takes Over Atlantic City This Weekend

Hey Folks,

One of my favorite weekends in Atlantic City is here again. Thousands of wrestlers, families, coaches, and fans are rolling into town for the New Jersey State Wrestling Championships at Boardwalk Hall — and if you’ve ever been there for the finals, you know the electricity in that place is something special.

From Thursday through Saturday, the best high school wrestlers in New Jersey will battle it out on the mats inside historic Boardwalk Hall. The tournament features 14 boys weight classes with 32 wrestlers in each bracket, and 12 girls weight classes with 16 wrestlers competing for state titles. For many of these athletes, this is the moment they’ve been working toward all season.

The action starts Thursday morning and builds all the way to the championship finals on Saturday afternoon when the arena is packed and the crowd is roaring.

Here’s the full schedule if you’re planning to come down and catch some matches.

Thursday – March 12
10:00 AM – Girls pre-quarterfinals, quarterfinals, wrestle-backs
Around 11:25 AM – Boys preliminaries, pre-quarterfinals, wrestle-backs

Friday – March 13
9:00 AM – Boys wrestle-backs, quarterfinals
10:45 AM – Girls wrestle-backs
3:45 PM – Girls semifinals
6:00 PM – Boys semifinals
Around 8:00 PM – Girls consolation semifinals
Around 8:40 PM – Boys wrestle-backs

Saturday – March 14
9:00 AM – Boys consolation semifinals
Around 9:45 AM – Boys and girls 3rd, 5th, and 7th place matches
Around 1:00 PM – Girls championship finals
Around 3:30 PM – Boys championship finals

This tournament is also a huge win for the city. The NJSIAA State Wrestling Championships bring tens of thousands of wrestlers, families, coaches, and fans into Atlantic City for the three-day event. The 2026 tournament alone is expected to generate about $4.8 million in economic impact, filling local hotels, restaurants, and businesses during the early spring season.

And I want to give a shout-out to Dan Gallagher, Director of Sports and Entertainment for the Atlantic City Sports Commission. Dan and his team continue to bring major events to our city that keep Atlantic City busy year-round.

Just last week the MAAC Basketball Tournament brought another big boost to town — generating about $4.6 million in economic impact. Combine that with wrestling states this weekend and you can see how important sports tourism is to Atlantic City.

Wrestling and college basketball have become two of the biggest sports drivers for our city, and it’s great to see Atlantic City hosting events that bring people here to stay, eat, walk the Boardwalk, and experience everything our town has to offer.

If you’re looking for things to do in Atlantic City this weekend, the energy inside Boardwalk Hall is hard to beat.

Good luck to all the wrestlers competing this weekend — and welcome to Atlantic City.

Live-Work-Play-AC!
See you on the 48

AC Mike