The final tournament of the year came for Andover on March 2nd. The NEISWA New England Championship, held at Lexington Christian Academy, is the premier event within New England Prep School wrestling. Only those athletes who place in the top four in their respective league are permitted to enter the grueling two-day event. This year, Andover sent eight wrestlers to represent the school and compete for the New England title. At 112, freshman Duncan Crystal came into the tournament seeded seventh in his bracket. However, he was upset in his first match after a questionable call sent the match to overtime. Despite being disappointed about his first match, Crystal wrestled back hard, winning his second match handily by a score of 11-4 against a tough Loomis-Chafee opponent. Unfortunately, the road ended there for Crystal, who lost his third match in another thrilling overtime match. At 119, Andover entered Co-Captain Akshay Paintal ’07 who narrowly missed achieving All-American status at this year’s national championship in Lehigh, PA. Though Paintal was projected to place in the top three in his bracket with a good shot at winning the whole thing, he was forced to withdraw from the tournament after re-injuring his shoulder in his third match. Despite his disappointing New England’s finish, Paintal capped off an impressive Andover career, in which he recorded the third most wins in school history. Co-captain Colin Dunn ’07 also finished off an impressive career at Andover at New Englands, finishing with a 2-2 record, both his losses coming to eventual top-four placers. In the middleweights, Lowers Scott Sanderson and Ben Elder wrestled at 140 and 145 pounds respectively. Both finished 1-2, but proved that they were ready to contend for titles in their next two years. At 171, Hector Cintron ’08 became Andover’s highest placer, taking third with an impressive 4-1 record that included two dominating victories over his Exeter counterpart at 171. With his final win, Cintron became just the fifth Andover wrestler to record 30 wins or more in a season. Cintron is expected to make a big impact on the league next year. In the upper weights, Kevin Wood ’07 and Reid Mosquera ’09 both wrestled well but did not place. Overall Andover finished 16th out of a field of 41 that. Things are looking bright for the future of Andover wrestling, as the team returns eight starters next year, including five of its New Englands entrants. The season is now over for the majority of the Andover Wrestling team. However, for two wrestlers there is still one event left. Rachel Cohen ’08 and Ali Flanders ’09 will compete in this year’s USGWA Girls National tournament in Michigan, March 31 to April 1.
