Emma Acampora hit a huge milestone in late February and this month has a chance to exit high school career on top of the state in girls wrestling.
The senior returned to Bordentown Regional High School for her final year after spending last season at Rancocas Valley. She’s back where her career took off and it seems only fitting that she picked up her 100th career win in Scotties’ black and gold.
“To hit that milestone is something that I kind of dreamed of since my freshman year,” said Acampora. “I remember I had gym class in the morning, and I go in there for gym and you see the banners up on the wall and everything. And I was like, one day my name’s going to be up there – I’m going to have my name on that 100 wins. And so when that actually happened, it was just like a surreal moment.”
Acampora has continued to add wins to her total as she enters the postseason. Despite sitting out the first 30 days due to New Jersey’s transfer rule, she is 20-1 and top-seeded at 100 pounds for the District 10 meet at Delran on March 1. With a top-three finish, she’d advance to the South Region meet at Absegami where she’s the defending champion, and a podium finish there would give her a chance to improve on last year’s sixth-place finish at the Tournament of Champions.
“I actually want to do better than that,” she said. “And I’m really confident in my ability to do better than that.”
Acampora and fellow senior Maddie Blumenthal, whose 25-0 start has her ranked second in the state at 120, are the Scotties’ best chances to medal at states. Acampora’s return gives Bordentown a dynamic 1-2 punch.
“They’re the definition of a role model for all the girls on and off the match, just the way they conduct themselves, how they handle their weight, how they go for their matches, or just their mindset going into a tournament or going into a tougher matchup that they might not be favored in necessarily,” said Bordentown coach Sammy Mazzella.
Acampora had a great role model of her own. Her sister, McKenna, who wrestles now at Bethany College in West Virginia, paved the way when they moved to Bordentown when Acampora was in fourth grade.
When they moved, Acampora was a high-end soccer player, but a serious ankle injury ended her career on the soccer pitch. In eighth grade, she took up wrestling, following in McKenna’s footsteps and hoping to duplicate her sister’s positive experiences in the sport.
“I picked up on wrestling pretty quick,” Acampora said. “And in middle school, girls wrestled guys so at the beginning, I got my butt kicked a little bit. But that’s kind of what made me better. But my sister was also training to go off to college, and me and my sister were around the same weight so it was kind of like a dream partner pair right there. Like I had a built-in training partner.”
Acampora devoted herself to wrestling after eighth grade. She trained with her sister, lifted weights with her mom at the gym and ran on her own. It was always with one goal in mind.
“Because I want to be good at wrestling,” Acampora said.
She piled up wins in her first two years at Bordentown. She got her 50th career in 2024, halfway to her dream of getting her name on the school’s 100 wins banner.
“I was so confident that I could get my name on that banner because I know my work ethic and how determined I was,” she said. “Once I set my mind on something, I’m gonna achieve it. And I put so much work in and I was continuing to put so much work in that I can be like, I can beat anyone, I don’t care who I wrestle. I was just so determined that I was going to achieve that goal.”
Winning didn’t stop when she got to Rancocas Valley. Her 75th career win came there on her way to her first regional title, another significant achievement. She was happy, though, to return to Bordentown to finish her high school career.
“I love my training partner I had last year, and I don’t want to say anything, but the environment for me is a lot different here at Bordentown,” Acampora said. “It’s a lot more accepting. Our team culture is a lot better than it was at RV. ”
Mazzella was thrilled to have Acampora back in the fold. He knew her sister from their high school years, and knew the family had a strong work ethic. It’s shown up in the training room. He’s been impressed by her makeup all year.
“Just how tough she is and she’s very resilient,” Mazzella said. “She always is very coachable and just her mindset of just how she attacks her matches and putting herself in, I like to say, killer mentality.”
Acampora has embraced the sport since that eighth grade year. She has poured her energy and emotion into it, and has been rewarded on the mat with plenty of success. Experience, she says, has enabled her to develop an identity as a wrestler. “When I go out onto the mat, I know what I’m going to do,” she said. “I know how I’m going to wrestle. I’m not just going out there doing a bunch of random things.”
She is looking to follow her sister into college wrestling where she hopes to study toward teaching secondary education with a focus on special education. First, she hopes to conclude her high school career with a state title. Her lone loss this year came against Jackson Township’s Ava Bonilla, a match that just demonstrates the path to gold won’t be easy.
“The end goal is be at the top of the podium, number one in the state,” Mazzella said. “And that’s just being persistent every day in practice, holding yourself to a high standard.”
Rather than stress about any opponent, Acampora relishes the opportunity to compete. She’s accomplished everything else she set her mind to, including her 100th win. The state title is just one more goal to reach.
“My wrestling has developed so much and has gotten so much better in the past year and a half that I really feel like the most confident version of myself going into this,” she said.
Emma Acampora, center, with sister McKenna and mom Teresa Jo Conroy.,
