Lower’s Klein now a two-time region champion

Joelle Klein is a two-time region wrestling champion.

The Lower Cape May Regional High School senior won her second straight South Region championship Sunday at Williamstown High School by blitzing through the 215-pound weight class.

Klein, the top seed in the weight class, received byes past the first two rounds. She then recorded pins in 31 seconds in the quarterfinal and 43 seconds in the semifinal. In the championship bout, Klein bested Rancocas Valley’s Kaila Mungo, 5-3, to win the title.

Mungo is a defending state champion who beat Klein in last year’s state semifinal match. But Sunday’s win over Mungo was Klein’s third this season. She also beat her at the South Jersey Wrestling Hall of Fame Tournament early in the season and again at the Kingsway girls tournament.

Klein, as well as the other top three place winners in the weight class from the South and North region tournaments, advances to the state championships in Atlantic City in early March.

Klein won her first region championship last year as a junior, when the NJSIAA first began holding postseason wrestling tournaments for female wrestlers.