Michael Borao '25 Recruiting Profile

My name is Michael Borao and I first began wrestling my freshman year, but truly found a deep and profound love for the sport. Since I began, I've been working extremely hard to improve and have seen immense improvement in the process. I truly want to continue my wrestling career at the next level, and believe that college wrestling will allow me to flourish and improve even more as a wrestler and person. To any wrestling room, I feel that I bring a very positive presence and always strive to work hard, along with pushing my teammates to constantly work hard as well.

To now speak on my development as a wrestler; in my first year wrestling as a freshman I was able to letter and win multiple varsity matches, despite being an undersized, novice 106lber. Since then, I've constantly been working and wrestled in hundreds of off-season matches and have spent countless hours in the Triumph Wrestling room. As a sophomore, I saw far more improvement than in my freshman year as I placed 4th at the prestigious John Goles Wrestling Tournament, and once again lettered. My last two years, however, are really where I saw my biggest jumps as in my junior year, I placed 6th at the TCNJ Pride Wrestling Tournament, 4th at NJ District 24, Qualified for the Shore Conference Tournament among some of the best in my conference, and ended with a 19-12 varsity record. Lastly, in my senior season, I was named Team Captain for the 2024-2025 year, placed 2nd at the TCNJ Pride Wrestling Tournament, placed 1st at the Holmdel Holiday Tournament, once again solidified myself as a top wrestler in the Shore Conference by qualifying for the SCT, and ended with a 22-6 record. 

Despite seeing lots of success this year, I wasn't able to compete in the post season being that I dislocated my elbow twice in my last match at the CJG4 State Sectional Finals, where I ultimately won my match while having a completely dislocated right elbow. I was recognized and was awarded with the Alex Sebahie "Never Back Down" Scholarship Award at the NJ Region 6 Wrestling Tournament, along with being awarded the Cougar Award at my high school, and the JSIWA Coaches Courage Award at the annual Shore Conference Wrestling Banquet. In addition, all season I was Top 32 ranked at 138lbs by The NJ Wrestling Times, along with ending as an honorable mention in the prestigious Shore Conference Rankings at 138lbs (ranked if not for elbow injury).

Lastly, to speak on my academics, over my high school career I have only taken either honors or AP courses. I saw an overall cumulative weighted GPA of 4.61 and have taken 8 AP courses (AP Gov, AP Lang, AP Lit, AP Spanish, AP Stat, AP Psych, AP Physics, AP US History). In addition, I am part of the prestigious Law & Public Service Magnet Program at my high school, and am a member of the National Honors Society.