Nick wrestled in the state championships today, an open tournament that attracts all the best wrestlers in the state. The top three in each weight class advance to the New England Youth Wrestling Championships.
This was Nick's first opportunity to wrestle against top-level competition. Nick's only other tournament experience was at the Big East Tournament, where he wrestled in the novice division and won all his matches, mostly by early pins. Maybe we should have called it the Big Easy.
I didn't see any bad matches. All of the wrestlers were competent and tough. Nick wrestled in one of the largest weight classes; there were 38 boys in the 98 pound division. There was almost one fewer, because Nick weighed in at 98.2 pounds. Too many gummy bears at the basketball game the night before. But after 15 minutes jogging around the gym, Nick was cleared to wrestle at 98.
He won his first match against Chris Sullivan (Canton) handily, 8-2, but almost got in trouble at the end of the match.
Nick's 2nd match (click to view)
Next he had to face the #4 seed, Jim Chappius (Duxbury). After two periods, Nick was winning 6-3. Nick started the third period on top, but his opponent reached back and caught him in a headlock and Nick spent the entire period fighting the pin. The reverse and near fall gave his opponent an 8-6 victory. The scorers had it wrong, showing a 6-6 tie, but their coach caught the mistake and our coaches confirmed that the score should be 8-6.
Nick's 3rd match (click to view)
In the consolation round, Nick wrestled Mike Trzcienski (Dracut) and neither one of them scored a point for three periods. In overtime, Nick shot quickly and took his opponent down for the victory.
Nick's 4th match (click to view)
Nick wrestled next against the #5 seed, Danny Cassidy (Billerica). His opponent got a takedown in each of the first two periods for a 4-0 lead. Nick started down in the third period and got a reverse to make it 4-2. With time running out, he got his opponent in a cradle and tried to put him on his back to earn the win, but couldn't turn him over in time.
Nick's second loss ended his day so we headed home. Two wins to offset the two losses was quite an accomplishment at this high profile tournament. Nick stepped up to the challenge of the competition and fought smart and hard to the last second of every match.
A 260-pound match with an 80-pound match in the background.Middle schoolers come in all shapes and sizes: most were thin and wirey,
a few had bulging muscles, one had a beard, another had breasts.
Awesome results for Winchester at the Mass Youth Wrestling Championships. Winchester only took six wrestlers, and three of them placed. Congratulations to
- Tyler Christoper - 1st place
- Marcos Torres - 4th place
- Nathan Landau - 1st place
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