In his final consolation match, Co-Captain Pierce Bausano ’18 swung his opponent around his body to take him down, earning a tight 2-1 decision win to place third in the 182-pound weight class at the Northern Invitational Tournament hosted by Hyde on Saturday. In the tournament, Andover Wrestling competed against 21 schools, won 27 individual matches, and finished in sixth place with a total of 99.5 points.
Bausano had a stand out performance for Andover, winning five out of his six matches, including a victory in his last match against an opponent he had lost to earlier in the day.
Martha Gao ’17 said, “Pierce had a very exciting consolation final match. His opponent was someone he had lost to earlier in the tournament, but he had to beat him now to get third. It was so close, and Pierce did an amazing job staying mentally tough and beating his opponent.”
Eamon Garrity-Rokous ’20 said, “I think being able to come back and beat an opponent who has beaten you before is very impressive, and it was a great performance by Pierce.”
In addition to Bausano, four other Andover wrestlers finished in the top four of their respective weight classes. Gao and Post-Graduate John O’Brien ’17 both finished third, wrestling at 113 pounds and 285 pounds, respectively. Both Gordon Paiva ’20 and David Moon ’18 placed fourth in their respective 120-pounds and 170-pounds weight classes.
Garrity-Rokous said, “One of the more prominent matches of the meet was David Moon’s because he beat either the number one or number two seed, and he beat him in a tight 13-10 win.”
“Martha Gao also had an exceptional match. She placed third and performed very impressively,” Garrity-Rokous continued.
Andover credits its success in the tournament to effort and preparation, as the team faced stiff competition at times.
In an email to The Phillipian, Paiva wrote, “One thing that stood out to me when observing our team wrestle is that no matter if one of us was wrestling the worst person in the bracket or the best person in the bracket, I knew they were putting their full effort in.”
Jack O’Neil ’19 said, “One thing the team did well on was focusing only on the next match. No matter the outcome of the previous match, everyone was able to put that behind them and focus on what we had to do next.”
The team will look to continue its success at the Class-A tournament at Williston Northampton this weekend.
O’Neil said, “One thing the team can improve on is wrestling smarter in our matches and going into the meet ready to compete. The team’s been working really hard this week on conditioning, drilling, and live [wrestling] in preparation for the Class-A tournament this Saturday.”
Garrity-Rokous said, “Overall the team did well, there are still many things that we can improve on, but we definitely have potential, and I am optimistic that we will have greater success in future meets.”
