Last Saturday, Andover sent five of its top wrestlers to Lehigh, Pennsylvania to compete in the annual National Prep Wrestling tournament, the highest honor for a prep school wrestler. This meet allowed Andover to test its mettle against the strongest field that prep school wrestling has to offer. Duncan Crystal ’10, Scott Sanderson ’09, Hector Cintron ’08, and Senior Co-Captains Akshay Paintal and Colin Dunn had all previously qualified for the tournament either by placing at the Class A tournament or by petitioning to the selection committee. Despite the stiff competition, all five were excited to participate, and the team’s hopes were high, especially for Paintal, who placed eighth at the tournament last year and earned All-American status. After braving a six-hour journey through snow, wind and rain, the five Andover wrestlers arrived at Lehigh late Thursday night, weary and stiff but ready to wrestle nonetheless. When morning came the next day, Andover arrived bright and early at the almost completely deserted arena, but the peace did not stay and before long the mats were teaming with the best grapplers from all over the country. The privilege of having the first Andover match belonged to the freshman, Duncan Crystal, who wrestled the tenth match of the tournament, which ended just over a thousand matches later. As Crystal’s first opponent joined him at the center of the mat, the entire Andover team suppressed a gasp, for he looked as though he weighed closer to 135 pounds than 112. Despite his opponent’s clear strength and size advantage, Crystal wrestled an excellent match, using his superior technical skill to counter his opponent’s every move. However, Duncan was unable to score any points against the physically overpowering opponent, and he lost by a score of 2-0. Next up for Andover was the seventh-seeded Paintal at 119, who squared off against an unseeded opponent. The Andover captain took an early 5-0 lead in his match, but in the second period injured his shoulder while trying to fight away from his back. Handicapped by the injury and unable to wrestle aggressively, Paintal suddenly found himself on the wrong end of an 8-0 run, losing the match 8-5. Though clearly disappointed with his performance, Paintal kept his trademark grin on his face throughout the day. Though he was continually hampered by his injured shoulder, Paintal managed to claw his way back into the top 12, winning five straight consolation matches and finishing just one win shy of repeating as an All-American. After Paintal’s shocking upset, Andover continued its first round slump, as Dunn and Sanderson both dropped close decisions at 135 and 140, while at 171 Cintron was soundly beaten by the eventual third-place wrestler in his bracket. Never a team to get down on itself, Andover bounced back in the consolation bracket, and all three wrestlers won at least one more match in the consolation bracket. Cintron had a particularly strong day after his first match, dominating an opponent who had previously beaten him, and finishing just two rounds away from All-American status in arguably the toughest weight in the tournament. At the end of the two day ordeal, Andover had a combined record of 9-10 and finished in a tie for 54th out of 123 schools. All in all, it spent just over 14 hours wrestling and watching wrestling, plus 11 hours commuting. As Duncan Crystal said as they left the stadium, “Coach Gorham told me at the beginning of the first day that I was going to be sick of wrestling by the time we left. I don’t think I ever want to see another wrestling match.” Then with a wink he added, “At least until practice on Monday.” With National Preps out of the way, Andover now has only one event left on its schedule, the New England Championship at Lexington Christian Academy this Saturday.
