Sports

Co-Captain Gaiss ’11 Defeats Defending New England Champ

In the second of three meets in Saturday’s quad meet, Co-Captain Ryan Gaiss ’11 defeated a defending New England Champion wrestler from Belmont Hill 7-3, taking the lead in the third period of the exciting victory. Other big matches for the team included an 8-6 victory for Will Park ’11 and a very close 6-5 win for Sven Lerner ’13. The team ended up losing 52-13 to the far superior opponents. Alex Du ’10 said, “There was no doubt that they were the better team, but we wrestled as hard as we could. The results are nothing to be ashamed of.” Earlier in the day, Andover opened the three-match meet facing league opponent Loomis Chaffee. Although it came down to the wire, Andover lost 42-31 in the team score. Gaiss said, “Loomis was a tough match for us. I think we could have won, but most of the close matchups just didn’t seem to go our way when we needed them to.” Strong performances for the team included wins from Charlie Danner ’11, Co-Captain Crystal ’10, Gaiss, and Anthony Tedesco ’12. Filling in for Colton Dempsey ’12, Danner won a close 8-4 decision against a quality opponent. At 135, Crystal won by fall as time expired in the third period. Gaiss followed up with a 10-1 major decision victory at 140, and at 145 Tedesco recorded a first period pin. Finishing up the day, Andover took on the equally talented Roxbury-Latin. Andover started off the meet at 130 lbs with an important 2-0 win from Tim Arena ’12. The team then carried this momentum into the next four bouts, as Gaiss, Crystal, Tedesco, and Park all defeated their opponents handedly. These victories gave Andover a commanding 23-0 lead. At 160 lbs, Robert Palmer ’11 proved himself with an impressive 6-4 overtime victory. The team rallied behind this big win, eventually winning the dual meet, 38-32. Co-Captain Duncan Crystal ’10 said, “We did exactly what was expected of us on Saturday: no more, no less. It would have been nice to pull out the match against Loomis Chaffee, but we did see some impressive individual wins.” On Wednesday, Andover squared off with Worcester Academy, a team that has struggled to put together good meets this year. Brian Hannafin ’12 started the match with an exciting buzzer-beating victory, winning 8-6. Said Hanafin, “I definitely had a couple of opportunities early in the match to pull away, but unfortunately I didn’t capitalize. The close match kept me determined to get the win and eventually get that last second takedown.” Andover got out to an early lead and never looked back, eventually winning 61-12. The team will face with Tilton Academy and Governors this week.