For the third year in a row, Andover Varsity Wrestling won the 14-team Northern Invitational Wrestling Tournament held at the Hyde School in Woodstock, Conn. on Saturday. At the tournament, four Andover wrestlers finished with individual titles in their weight classes. Andreas Shiekh ’15 captured the 106lb class, James Palmer ’14 won the 170lb class, Henry Curtis ’15 finished first in the 195lb class and Captain Christian Vallis ’14 beat his competitors in the 120lb class for a tournament win. “I think we took care of business and wrestled our best this year,” said Vallis. “We need to carry over that momentum in the next couple of weeks as we will be facing our toughest competition of the year.” In the unlimited weight class, Jason Young ’15 placed second. Chase Gottlich ’14 (126lb), Matt Simon ’14 (220lb) and Alex Humphreys ’15 (285lb) all placed third in the 126lb, 220lb and 285lb classes, respectively at the tournament. Each of the 16 Andover wrestlers who competed in the tournament won at least one bout. Following its impressive showing at the tournament, Andover looked to beat rival Exeter for the sixth straight year on Wednesday, but fell by a small margin, and ultimately lost 36-40. Despite individual victories by Gottlich, Palmer and Vallis, Andover came up just short of a victory. Gottlich, Palmer and Vallis all pinned their opponents. Vallis made quick work of his opponent, pinning him in under 20 seconds, while Gottlich grinded out a pin in the third period. Despite the three decisivie individual wins, Andover was not able to pull out the win. With the loss, the team fell to 4-5 in Class “A” league competition. Andover Wrestling ended the dual meet season with a final record of 6-9, and 4-5 record in the Class “A” league. Wrestling now heads to the New England Class “A” tournament, scheduled for Saturday at the Williston-Northhampton School. One week later, the team will travel to the New England Prep tournament at Choate.
