Down 5-0, Ramphis Medina PG’19 fought back to pin his opponent and win his match. Building off of Medina’s efforts, Andover Wrestling claimed third place overall out of 10 total teams at the 2019 Class A Interschols on Saturday at Andover with 186 points.
Head Coach Rich Gorham wrote in an email to The Phillipian, “On the mat, we wrestled well, and placed third of ten teams—one better than last year, when we placed fourth. Our wrestlers enjoyed the chance to compete in front of their home crowd.”
Andover qualified 11 wrestlers for the compete this coming Saturday, and twelve wrestlers finished in the top six for their weight class on Saturday. Ahead of Andover, Northfield Mount Hermon claimed first place followed by Exeter, who claimed second. Saturday’s meet served as the qualifies for the New England Prep Tournament being held this Saturday at Green Farms Academy.
On Saturday Andover claimed three second-place finishes. Co-Captain Eamon Garrity-Rokous ‘20 claimed second place at 152 lbs, Co-Captain Pablo Sanchez ’19 earned second at 182 lbs, Arnav Bhakta ’22 took second at 106 lbs. Vinny Marino PG’19, Medina, and Nick Buhler ’21 all took third in their respective weight classes. Jack O’Neil ’19 took 4th and Matt Suri ’21 claimed 5th, each in their respective weight classes.
On the mat, Andover proved its persistent nature and refusal to quit, especially through Marino’s match, according to Garrity-Rokous.
Garrity-Rokous wrote in an email to The Phillipian, “Vinny’s semifinal match that went into overtime was also a thriller for me. It was against a very tough opponent, whom I’ve seen wrestle very well at Nationals and all sorts of other tournaments, but Vinny held his own against very tough opponents throughout the day and definitely should have beat this kid if there was just a little bit more time on the clock in overtime.”
According to Marino and Garrity-Rokous, the team maintained its composure and focus throughout the day despite the frequent eliminations.
Marino said, “I think we did a good job of staying positive. In wrestling tournaments wrestlers are eliminated after two losses. It’s really important to keep a positive attitude if you lose one match to move on and continue wrestling your best in the consolation round.”
Garrity-Rokous wrote, “I think that even though wrestling, especially wrestling tournaments, can feel like an individual thing, our team remained focused on scoring points for the team. That is to say, when we could pin our opponents, I think we really went for the pin each and every time. We never let up, and we kept on fighting for pins in order to score more team points. Because of this we placed third at Class As as a team and really showed how, even though Andover is a very young team, we are still a very tough, relentless, and ever-improving one nevertheless.”
This upcoming weekend, Andover will travel to Green Farms to compete in New Englands.