After suffering heavy graduation losses last spring, everyone expected North Brunswick to retrench and brace for a rebuilding year.

Instead, the Raiders look as strong as ever and are already 8-1 in dual meets. And yesterday, at East Brunswick’s Churchill Middle School, North Brunswick proved the naysayers wrong by winning back to back titles at the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament.

While it had just one champion, 114 pounder Francis Peraza, North Brunswick placed six wrestlers in the finals, picked up a third and two fourths and wound up placing all but two of its wrestlers to easily win the title over runner-up East Brunswick 206.5-182.

Old Bridge finished third in the team standings, with 180.5, while Perth Amboy was fourth with 152. North Plainfield finished fifth, with 74 points.

In addition to Peraza, 120 pounder Alexandra Reyes, 132 pounder Mahwish Kahn, 138 pounder Kelin DeJesus, 145 pounder Kaylee Chiapa Bendito and 185 pounder D’Atra Dorismond reached the finals and finished second.

Zaire Romero finished third for the Raiders at 152, while both 126 pounder Janiya Orihuela and 235 pounder Michell Barrios finished fourth. Victoria Longo finished fifth for North Brunswick at 100.

“Build solid individuals and they will come together and build a solid team,” North Brunswick coach David Saley said in describing the way his girls dominated the tournament. “We had a lot of girls focused in the off season. They wrestled tough and they’ll wrestle tough people in the future. It’s just mat time.”

Three of North Brunswick’s six finalists knocked off top seeds on their way to the finals. Raider 120 pounder Alexandra Reyes pinned Old Bridge’s top seeded Julia Berk in her semifinal, while Mahwish Kahn pinned top seeded Aubrey Ramos of Middlesex in the 132 pound semifinal.

“Our girl at 132, Mahwish, spends more time on the mat than anyone on the team,” Saley said of Kahn. “She’s always the first one there. She’s always the last one to leave. She’s been one of our better captains, convincing the other girls to go to club and travel for competitions in the off season. She loves the room, spends a lot of time in there.”

The third upset minded North Brunswick finalist, was the team’s lone individual champion, Peraza. She had hardly made a splash at last year’s GMC Tournament, but blazed through the early rounds, reaching the final by recording three straight pins, including decking top seeded Emily Cuomo of East Brunswick in the semifinal.

Wrestling out of the 5-seed, Peraza completed her championship run with a wild 18-12 win in the final over 2-seed Valerie Cicero of Spotswood. Peraza put together a big third period to win the match, picking up an escape, a takedown and a three point near fall.

“Honestly, I just really tried to stay calm in the match,” Peraza said of the high scoring final. “I knew it was important, keeping my cool and breathing, and knowing how to score out of her moves. This whole tournament I just tried to keep calm, because I know my nerves get to me some times.

“I feel really proud of myself right now. I feel really proud of my team. We all wrestled hard today. We had a talk before the tournament that we had to do it again. Everybody had to keep their head on straight so we could take it home again.”