The College of New Jersey Men's Wrestling

Galante enters his fifth season at the helm of TCNJ's program. In the 2014-15 season, he guided the Lions to 17th place at NCAA Division III Championships. TCNJ also produced two All-Americans at the NCAA Championships. The Lions regular season was highlighted by 12 victories and a season-long team ranking. While at TCNJ, Galante has coached five national finalists in four years. The 2007 graduate of the college previously served as a health and physical education teacher at Alexandria Middle School for three years. As a wrestler at TCNJ, Galante was a three-year letter winner and claimed All-American honors in 2005 and 2007. He finished fourth at the 2005 NCAA Championships and was a national runner-up his senior season in 2007. Galante won the 157-pound weight class at the Metropolitan Conference Championships in each of his three seasons and was a three-time national qualifier. He finished his standout career with a record of 84-15 and served as a team captain his final two seasons. His success wasnt limited to the mat as he was named to the National Wrestling Coaches Association Division III Scholar Team in 2007. In high school, Galante was a 2002 NJ State Finalist at 145 pounds, two time Region 8 Finalist, three time District 32 Champion, and a member of Team New Jersey competing in Freestyle.  You can follow coach Galante and Lions' wrestling program on twitter @ TCNJ_Wrestling

Follow TCNJ Wrestling on Social Media Twitter: @TCNJ_Wrestling Instagram:@ tcnj_wrestling  Entering 15th season as head coach in 2025-26 Alma Mater: The College of New Jersey ’07 Hometown:    Ocean City, N.J. Education:     BS, Health & Exercise Science  • 5-time Regional Coach of the Year (2020, 2022, 2023, 2025, 2026) • 2020 NWCA Mideast Regional Coach of the Year • 1 Top-5 Team Finish at NCAA Division III Championships (2026 - 5th) • 5 Top-10 Team Finishes at NCAA Division III Championships • 10 Top-20 Team Finishes at NCAA Division III Championships • 6-time Regional Champions (2020, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026) • 2015 South Jersey Wrestling Hall of Fame  • 2014 Named Assistant Director of Athletics • 2013 TCNJ "Roy Van Ness" Coach of the Year • 2012 NWCA “Rookie Coach of the Year” Coached:  • 5 NCAA Champions and the Most Dominant Wrestler in DIII (2012) • 36 Division III All-Americans • 42 NWCA Scholar All-Americans Galante completed his 15th season at the helm of TCNJ's program in 2025-26. Galante has produced an All-American in all but one of those seasons and has led the Lions to six consecutive regional titles as well as five top-10 team finishes at the NCAA Championships, including a 5th-place showing in 2026. Galante has coached five NCAA champions, including Garrett Totten and Hunter Mays in 2026, who became the first pair of TCNJ teammates to claim the belt in the same season since 1987. Galante guided TCNJ to an 11th-place finish at the NCAA Championships in 2024-25, led by All-Americans Mays (5th), Totten (6th), Mike Conklin (7th), and Nick Sacco (8th). The four All-Americans marked the most for the Lions since they had five in 2020, the only other season since 2003-04 with more than four. Two of those All-Americans (Mays and Totten) were mid-year transfers from Lehigh and Navy, respectively. The Lions also ran away with their fifth consecutive regional title behind a trio of champions in Mays, Totten, and DJ Henry, while Matthew Griffin, Sam Kotch, Conklin, and Sacco all punched their NCAA tickets with runner-up finishes.  After the season, a program record 11 TCNJ wrestlers were named NWCA Scholar All-Americans.  Galante's 2023-24 squad completed a four-peat at the Mideast Regional meet. Nick Sacco (165) and Conklin (149) earned individual championships while Peter Wersinger (285) and Griffin (125) finished second and third in their respective weight classes. Sacco went on to become the NCAA individual champion at 165 pounds, while Conklin (7th) and Wersinger (8th) each placed to become All-Americans and help TCNJ finish inside the top-10 for the first time since 2019.  Galante led the Lions to their second NCAA Mideast Regional championship in as many seasons in 2022. TCNJ enjoyed a litany of never-before-seen accomplishments in running away with back-to-back regional crowns for the first time in school history as the Lions racked up 163.5 team points, well clear of Ithaca's second-place tally of 135.5. Domenic Difrancescantonio (141), Quinn Haddad (197), and Thomas Marretta (285) all captured individual titles and were joined by runners-up Conklin (149), Matt Sacco (157), and Daniel Surich (184) as NCAA qualifiers, giving TCNJ its largest national haul since sending seven to the championships in 2005. For his efforts, Galante was named Coach of the Year and Maaziah Bethea earned Assistant Coach of the Year honors for the Lions, for whom the historic accomplishments included: First back-to-back regional crowns since the NCAA moved to a regional format in 2013 First time the program placed all 10 wrestlers at regionals First time with six regional finalists First time with three regional champions After the season, Galante saw a program-record nine wrestlers named Scholar All-Americans by the NWCA. Prior to the 2020 NCAA Mideast Regional, Galante was named Mideast Region Coach of the Year by the NWCA. He coached his second national champion in the 2018-19 season as Ryan Budzek went 5-0 at the NCAA National Championships. That year, Galante earned his 100th career victory with a win over RIT and was named NCAA Regional Coach of the Year. In 2016-17, the team defeated eighth-ranked Concordia College (Minn.) at the NWCA national duals for the 700th victory in program history. In 2015-16, Galante lead the Lions to an 18-3 overall record and a second-place finish at the NCAA Regional Championships. TCNJ had four wrestlers qualify for the NCAA national tournament with Doug Hamann earning All-American honors. In the 2014-15 season, he guided the Lions to 17th place at NCAA Division III Championships, where TCNJ produced two All-Americans. The Lions' regular season was highlighted by 12 victories and a season-long team ranking. The 2007 graduate of the college previously served as a health and physical education teacher at Alexandria Middle School for three years. As a wrestler at TCNJ, Galante was a three-year letter winner and claimed All-American honors in 2005 and 2007. He finished fourth at the 2005 NCAA Championships and was a national runner-up his senior season in 2007. Galante won the 157-pound weight class at the Metropolitan Conference Championships in each of his three seasons and was a three-time national qualifier. He finished his standout career with a record of 84-15 and served as a team captain his final two seasons. His success wasn’t limited to the mat as he was named to the National Wrestling Coaches Association Division III Scholar Team in 2007. In high school, Galante was a 2002 New Jersey state finalist at 145 pounds, two-time Region 8 Finalist, three-time District 32 Champion, and a member of Team New Jersey competing in Freestyle. In 2015, he was inducted into the South Jersey Wrestling Hall of Fame.   Overall Year Wins Losses NCAA Finish 2011-12 11 9 6th 2012-13 12 7 7th 2013-14 8 8 T-14th 2014-15 12 9 17th 2015-16 18 3 17th 2016-17 12 13 35th 2017-18 15 5 T-42nd 2018-19 16 1 8th 2019-20 16 2 NCAA Championships Canceled 2020-21 3 1 NCAA Championships Canceled 2021-22 11 1 T-29th 2022-23 11 6 16th 2023-24 13 5 9th 2024-25 14 5 11th 2025-26 17 6 5th Totals 189 81 5 Top-10 Finishes, 1 Top-5 Finish

Dr. Thomas Brennan Jr. has been the academic advisor for the wrestling team since the 2016-17 season. Dr. Brennan holds a Bachelor’s and a Doctoral Degree in Civil Engineering from Purdue University, and a Master’s Degree in Civil and Infrastructure Engineering from George Mason University. He is originally from National Park, NJ, and is a 1992 Graduate of Gateway Regional High School where he wrestled, played football, and competed in the pole vault as part of the track and field team. He is currently a Professor of Civil Engineering at TCNJ, with research in Transportation Engineering and Intelligent Transportation Systems.