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Brick Memorial's Anthony Santaniello is heading to the Big 12.

Santaniello, a returning state champion, has made a non-binding verbal commitment to wrestle collegiately at the University of Oklahoma, Brick Memorial's wrestling program announced on Saturday afternoon.

Santaniello first announced his commitment on his Instagram page.

The Mustangs junior won the 2021 NJSIAA 120-pound state championship and is one of New Jersey's top pound-for-pound wrestlers. Santaniello is 66-2 for his career. He was the state runner-up at 106 pounds as a freshman and avenged that loss to Kinnelon's Evan Mougalian by defeating him in the 120-pound final last season.

Santaniello finished second at this season's Beast of the East Tournament, falling 6-5 to Delbarton's Tyler Vazquez. He rebounded the following weekend by dominating the Mustang Classic 120-pound bracket to win his second title at his program's home tournament.

As a freshman, Santaniello went 42-1 at 106 pounds, winning the TCNJ Pride and Mustang Classic tournaments during the regular season, claiming the Shore Conference Tournament title, District 27 and Region 7 championships, and then finished second in the state losing to Mougalian, 3-1.

During a truncated sophomore season, Santaniello was a perfect 15-0, winning the NJSIAA Central Super Region title and then earning payback against Mougalian with a 4-2 victory in the 120-pound state final. His victory was part of a record-setting tournament for Brick Memorial as the Mustangs had four state champions (Vincent Santaniello, Evan Tallmadge, David Szuba) to become the first Shore Conference team to accomplish that feat.

Santaniello is Brick Memorial's sixth Division 1 recruit in the last five seasons, joining brother Vincent (Navy), current Brick Memorial senior Evan Tallmadge (Navy), Rider freshman David Szuba, Joe Colon (Rutgers), and Gianni Ghione (UPenn).


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