Co-Captain Duncan Crystal ’10 and Colton Dempsey ’12 continued their dominance in New England Wrestling, both winning their weight classes at the New England Championships. Andover finished with 130 points, leading to an impressive third place finish out of the 44 teams that competed. Crystal said, “Our third place finish as a team was really impressive, especially because we placed fourth at Class A’s. We had huge wins from guys like Alex Du ’10 and Will Park ’11 that led to our strong performance. Last year, we were third in New England as well, so it was nice to see us retain our title as a respected program in New England.” Crystal, Dempsey and Co-Captain Ryan Gaiss ’11 all earned spots in the finals after thrilling victories in the quarterfinals and semifinals. At 130 pounds, Dempsey took the ring first. At the beginning of the third period Dempsey held a comfortable 6-1 lead, however, disaster struck and Dempsey was reversed and put to his back. He deftly escaped his opponent and took the gold medal, winning 7-5. Crystal then continued the Andover win streak with another Championship at 135 pounds. Crystal defeated a very talented Northfield Mount Hermon opponent in the semifinals and defeated the one seed in a thrilling 1-0 double overtime match. With this win, Crystal now holds fourth place on the Andover all-time wins list, with 90 in his career. Co Captain Ryan Gaiss ’11 was the third Andover wrestler in the finals. He squared off with his toughest competition of the year and fell short, losing 12-6. Dempsey said, “It was great to have all three of us in the finals. It shows that all our practicing together has really paid off and our competition in the practice room is up to par. Both Duncan and Ryan wrestled great finals matches, and Ryan’s second place finish is nothing to be ashamed of. His opponent is a great wrestler and Ryan kept it close, but things just didn’t work out for him.” Andover wrestling had eight representatives at the New England Prep Schools Tournament over the weekend. All but one of the wrestlers finished in the top eight, and those who finished in the top eight earned a place in this weekend’s National Championships at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. Anthony Tedesco ’12 finished in third place, defeating a solid Brunswick wrestler in the consolation finals. Both his semi-final match and consolation final match were double overtime nail biters, as he lost his semi-final match 0-1, followed by a 1-0 victory in the consolation finals. Going into the tournament unseeded, Alex Du ’10 also had his best performance of the season, pinning the Western League Champion in a match nobody thought he could win. The seven wrestlers will now compete at the Prep School National Wrestling tournament this weekend. Three Andover wrestlers received seeds for the tournament, Dempsey receiving the eighth, Crystal getting the ninth and Gaiss getting the tenth. Wrestling started early this morning at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and will continue throughout the day and all day tomorrow.
