After a month long layoff from wrestling, the Andover Varsity Wrestling team came back to defeat Choate Rosemary Hall 61-18. Now, Andover’s season record is three wins and zero losses. Shaun Stuer ’09, the rising star on the Andover wrestling team, had an incredible performance on the mat last Saturday. He defeated Frank Bertassi, who won the Class A league tournament last year at 189 lbs, with a score of 10-5. Luke Cahill ’06 also had a fantastic performance last Saturday, who had an excellent comeback from trailing 13-6. He retaliated with a reverse and pinned his opponent, obtaining another six points for Andover. Brian Foye ’06, Hector Cintron ’08, Colin Serafino ’06, and Colin Dunn ’07 also won by pin, thereby gaining six points apiece for Andover. Akshay Paintal ’07 and Captain Gabe Worgaftik ’06 both won by technical fall and gained five points apiece for Andover. Gabe Worgaftik ’06, who is ranked number one in New England at 135 lbs, has great prospects this year. Although he was out for health reasons at the end of fall term, he came back from break looking very strong and won a great match. Although the team had a solid victory against Choate, the team shall be facing much more difficult competition very soon. It will battle Deerfield, Providence Country Day, and Hyde Maine this coming weekend. Rachel Cohen ’08 said, “The team wrestled pretty hard, but Choate was not that tough of a competitor. We have Loomis next week and that will be an incredibly tough match.” With two varsity starters battling injuries and several tough teams on the horizon, Andover will have to step it up to maintain its perfect record. Andover exceeds the expectations of the standard wrestling team not only by being undefeated, but also by the number of girls on the team. This year there are three girls competing on varsity, as well as several others on junior varsity. Kassie Archambault ’06 was the first girl at Andover to place at a Class A tournament. Now that she has brought more Andover girls into the sport, a new side of wrestling has opened up to them. Perhaps the team’s greatest strength is its chemistry. Luke Cahill ’06 said, “Everyone seems a lot more focused. We’re pushing each other a lot more than I’ve seen in the past years. Everyone seems to be really dedicated to the sport.”
