Phillips Academy wrestlers have left little doubt of their power with the results of their meets. They are sweating out the benefits of their hard work, wrestling their way to a strong record of 13-4, although only 11 of those wins are in the Class A League. Andover went 2-1 in a quad meet at home on Saturday, destroying Tilton 56-24, beating St. Paul’s 34-33 and losing to Brooks 44-33. In fact, the meet against St. Paul’s resulted in a tied score, but PA was named the winner by the greatest number of first match points, the sixth tiebreaker criteria. This has been the second year in a row that the PA/St. Paul’s dual has been decided by tiebreaker; however, last year, St. Paul’s was declared victorious. Colin Serafino ’06, Brian Foye ’06, and Akshay Paintal ’07 all went undefeated with 3-0 records. All three of Paintal’s wins were by pin, allowing him to boost his team-leading total to ten on the season. Andover opened against Tilton, using pins from Hector Cintron ’08, Sam Cartmell ’06, Serafino, Paintal, and Gordon Murphy ’06 to seal the win against the Rams. St. Paul’s proved to be a tougher opponent. Paintal, AJ Charles ’07, and Foye all pinned their opponents, and Captain Gabe Worgaftik ’06 and Victor Vazquez ’06 wrestled their way to a couple of solid wins. Yet Andover still trailed by a score of 33 – 24 with only two bouts left. Moving up to 189 pounds from his accustomed 171, Cintron earned an important 8-4 win. Serafino pulled through with a first-period victory at 215 pounds, forcing the 33 – 33 tie, sending the match into the tiebreaker. PA fought hard but lost the last meet of the day against Brooks. Charles, Murphy, Foye, and Paintal all pinned their opponents, and Serafino achieved an impressive 10-3 victory. In the exhibition bouts, Alex Clifford ’07 and Thao Nguyen ’07 both pulled out wins. On Wednesday, Andover’s grapplers absolutely crushed Thayer, with a score of 57 – 18. Foye had a particularly impressive match. He was losing four to one, but pulled through to win with a pin. Charles, wrestling at 125 pounds, also had an excellent pin. Captain Worgaftik had a great day, winning all three of his matches by pin. He had to fight exhaustion to pin two of his opponents in immediate succession during his exhibition matches. During the course of the day’s meet, the team sustained only two losses and came out overwhelmingly victorious with 20 wins. The girls on the team, in particular, have been exceeding everyone’s expectations. On Wednesday, every single PA female wrestler won her match, and, most impressively, Kassie Archambault ’06 came through for the team, pinning a male wrestler at 119 pounds.
