Andover Wrestling will not compete in Borden Gym again in the 2021-2022 season, as the remainder of its meets are away from home.
Prior to Andover Wrestling’s three triumphs against Govenor’s, Middlesex, and Hyde, the team had lost all of its away meets
Following a previous loss to Roxbury Latin, Andover Wrestling claimed two straight team wins against Governor’s and Hyde with scores of 58-21 and 78-6 respectively. On the same day, Andover Girls Wrestling competed at Middlesex in which the team won 7-4. These results followed a female wrestling tournament that saw Andover win the team title on Sunday. Andover now stands at a record of 4-4.
Julia Carmona ’24 emphasized the difficulties Andover faced in order to get their wins. A large component of their struggle, according to Carmona, has been the inexperience of most of the team.
Carmona said, “I think the fact that most of us are new… we have one Senior for the girls and then there’s five Lowers and two [Juniors] and I think all but one of the Lowers are new. Even with the boys, a lot of us are new. So it’s been hard to go against competitors who have been competing for multiple years.”
Somen Chakrabortti ’22 believes that the team has also had many struggles when it comes to conditioning.
“Some people gassed out and gave up during matches that they were winning, so we definitely have to work on [conditioning],” Chakrabortti said.
Although experience has shown to be one of the team’s biggest weaknesses, it has also proven to be one of the team’s biggest strengths in building connections, according to Carmona. She believes that the inexperience of some of the team’s wrestlers has allowed for a closer bond on the team.
“I think as a whole our team is very close-knit and has a very strong community but it’s usually within the girls. Most of us are new so we all came in like the first practice not really knowing what to do…so I think one of our strengths is just being a community together,” said Carmona.
Carmona and Chakrabortti noted two wrestlers who performed well in recent meets. Carmona mentioned the success of Sakina Cotton ’24, a new wrestler on the team.
Carmona said, “Sakina, she’s a Lower, it’s her first year wrestling and she is one of the few people in her weight class, so she’s wrestling a lot of good people and she’s adapted really well and has practiced really hard.”
Similar to Carmona, Chakrabortti brought attention to Josh Espinoza ’25 for making progress in recent meets.
Chakrabortti said, “Josh Espinoza, for me, was a stand-out wrestler today because he got his first two varsity wins and he pinned both of his opponents.”
According to Carmona, the team will be working on conditioning for their upcoming matches. She noted the importance of using endurance on the mat.
“I think wrestling is a really difficult sport, although the matches are relatively short, like six minutes, you’re going full sprint with every single muscle in your body for six minutes and I think in terms of endurance and being able to be 100 percent for those six minutes is what we have been working on a lot,” said Carmona.
Andover Wrestling will compete against Choate and Northfield Mount Hermon at Choate on Saturday.
