ATHOL — Things weren’t looking good for the Athol wrestling team at the midway point of a dual meet against rival Mahar on Wednesday.
The Bears trailed the Senators 39-12 following the 160-pound tilt, and with just five matches to go, Athol needed to not only win them all – but win all five via pinfall to come out with a team victory.
Caleb Cox got things going with a pin at 170 while the next three Bears also won via pinfall. Athol then took 285 via forfeit to come away with a 42-39 comeback victory.
“Being a native of Athol and graduating here 10 years ago, beating Mahar always has a special place in my heart,” Bears head coach Fred Marks said. “Our upper register is the guys we really rely on on the team. Once we started getting momentum, we felt good about our chances.”
Cox started the scoring run for the Bears — who were competing in their first dual meet of the season — at 170 with a first-round pin against Mahar’s Cameron Doyle. Athol then took 182 via forfeit before Joseph Gray picked up a pin in the first round over Senator Anya Roberts at 195.
At 220, Athol’s Cain Young pinned Gracin Bisceglia in the first round to cut the Mahar lead to 39-36 before the Bears won by forfeit at 285 to earn the come from behind victory.
“I just wanted to go wrestle and win,” Young said. “I wanted to wrestle as hard as I can. If you muscle him, you muscle him. I was just going out there to try to rip his head off. That’s what I was going for.”
Going into the meet, Athol knew it might have to make up some ground in the heavier weights.
“In the locker room when we were weighing in, I looked back at everyone behind me and told them we needed to get pins,” Cox said. “We have some young kids at the top of our lineup and they were wrestling some good kids. I knew the back end of our order had to get pins so I told them we had to get wins for our team and we executed.”
Mahar coach John Speek said he likes where his team is at at this juncture of the season, but was left wishing he made a few tactical changes to try to get the victory.
“We knew it was going to be close the whole way,” Speek said. “Nobody likes losing to Athol. We made a mistake in our lineup. Our wrestlers right now are in a good spot in terms of where we want them to be with how much work we’ve gotten in. We’re developing correctly. I think we made a tactical mistake in the lineup. If we made an adjustment we might have been able to pull it out.”
Athol opened the match with a win at 106, with Evan Ke pinning Matthew McIntyre in the first round. Mahar’s Abduil Gilmore responded by pinning Athol’s Landon Richard at 113 to tie it back up.
The best match of the night came at 120 between Athol’s Alex Masaitis and Senator Elias Roberts. The two were tied 2-2 after the first period and Masaitis led 4-3 after the second period.
Roberts stormed back in the third period, outscoring Masaitis 7-0 in the round to earn three points for Mahar via a 10-4 decision. It was the only match to go the full six minutes.
“I wasn’t sure if I was going to win,” Roberts said. “He was very strong. He got tired and I was able to get him down after he missed a shot. It was awesome to win.”
The Senators took 126 and 132 by forfeit to take a 21-6 lead. At 138, Athol’s Anthony Frediani pinned Dante Dowler with 17 seconds left in the first round to add six points to the Bears’ total.
Mahar picked up forfeit wins at 145 and 152 before Senator Luke Chiodo pinned Athol’s Aiden Kirwin at 160 with 45 seconds left in the first to give Mahar a 39-12 lead.
“We have to go back and focus on wrestling smart,” Speek said. “We have to work on wrestling clean and getting the points we can.”
With a young roster competing in their first dual meet of the season, the victory against a neighboring rival was that much sweeter for the Bears.
“We have a bunch of young kids,” Young said. “It’s fun teaching these guys the way to wrestle. I’m just happy to be here my senior year.”
After a 2020 season that didn’t include wrestling, the two rivals were pleased to once again be competing on the mats.
“We’re very fortunate to have these meets,” Marks said. “These guys need it. They’re doing the best they can. Wrestling with masks is a challenge but they’re fighting through it. They’re a tough team.”
Franklin Tech 48, Frontier 24 – The two teams split the six matches contested, but the visiting Eagles took advantage of forfeitures to capture the victory Wednesday night.
Franklin Tech received victories from Josh Brunelle (145, pin), Jacob Guillemette (182, pin) and Andrew Esposito (285, pin).
Frontier’s Payton Sladeski was a winner at 120 pounds via pinfall, while teammates Carter Robinson (132) and Edward Mieczkowski (138) also capture wins thanks to pins.
Franklin Tech 44, Pathfinder 22 — It had been 22 days between games for the Eagles, but they were still able to come out flying to pull away with an independent victory over the Pioneers in Turners on Thursday.
Franklin Tech (4-1) raced out to an 18-3 lead after one and continued to play great defense to go ahead 29-9 at the half.
“We had to knock some rust off early but the girls played well,” Eagle coach Joe Gamache said. “The girls were eager to get back out there.”
Kendra Campbell led the way with 19 points and six steals for Tech. Kaitlin Trudeau added 12 points and six steals while Hannah Gilbert scored six points and Lea Chapman tallied four points in the win.
Mohawk Trail 50, Putnam 25 — The Warrior defense came to play on Wednesday, holding Putnam to a mere 10 first-half points en route to a Hampshire League South victory in Buckland.
Mohawk Trail (4-4, 2-3) was led offensively by Stella Clark, who had another big night offensively with 20 points.
Rachel Pease tallied 13 points on five field goals, Mya Lesieur had seven points and Riley Giard and Octavia Crawford each added four points in the win.