Tasha Bohorad ’26 on the mat.
Suhaila Cotton ’24 pins opponent in match against Girls Open.
Despite losing to Choate 33-48 on Saturday, marking the season’s first loss, Andover All-Gender Wrestling managed to return strong with a 48-29 win against Noble and Greenough and a 11-9 win at the Girls Open on Wednesday. Its record now stands at 4-1.
Reese York ’26 congratulates his teammate, Eva Murphy ’25, on her excellent performance at Choate. York highlighted Murphy’s diligence and ability to focus on her opponent in her match.
“The person that stuck out to me the most was Eva Murphy ’25, she was down in the first period, and then in the third period she was able to get a head lock on her opponent and pin them, and she was also wrestling up a weight class and so that was a really big for her overall. Murphy puts in the work everyday, and she deserved that win. Her win was inspiring to me and it showed me that how hard you work is how well you will perform, and that is an important lesson,” said York.
Magnus Julin ’25, a two-year wrestler, illustrated the difficulty of wrestling the same person back to back. Though Julin lost his match, he believes that he has improved his skills since the start of the season.
“Well, the person I wrestled actually was the last person I wrestled at our table tournament, which was right before Winter Break. So I think the opponent was a really good wrestler and I think I definitely saw some improvement from last time I wrestled him. I still think he was just in general a better wrestler than me at this point in time. [I have improved] mentally because we’ve been reviewing a lot more different moves during practices and just trying to reflect on what we could learn from the tournament and just how that impacts the way we practice as a team,” said Julin.
Furthermore, York noted Andover Wrestling’s hard-working mentality and determination as the key for them to improve. Its positive outlook allows for them to improve for the future rather than dwell on the past.
York said, “Andover Wrestling is hardworking because the team puts in a lot of work through the practices, and everyone is always doing or pushing each other to do that one extra set and just do a little bit more just to get it down. To improve their skills to that next level. Just to summarize, in the end, we did lose to Choate, but that shows that we just have a lot of ways we still need to improve and we just need to keep doing what we do best, pushing through and working even harder than the last time.”
Like York, Angelique Ceballos Cardona ’25 credited her improved skills to the grit of the team. Although Cardona lost her match, the lessons taught at every practice expanded her knowledge for future matches.
“I think definitely in practice, we really value hard work and pushing ourselves and that’s exactly what wrestling is on live. It’s about just getting in there, giving your best. It’s a mental game as well. We talked about that in practice as well. How much mentality matters and you know, basically just like going in it to win it. You’re gonna put the work in practice because you want to win, and then you’re gonna put the work in as well when you’re going live because you want to win,” said Ceballos Cardona.
Tasha Bohorad ’26 felt that the meet’s performances showcased what each wrestler needs to work on individually. However, she highlighted how the team could improve their skills offensively, an aspect missed from their current gameplay.
“I think everyone is at different levels because they have different levels of experience. So speaking for people who just started this year or newer, definitely staying on a few more and being more offensive because we’re pretty good at the defensive, but just going on the offensive more would be helpful. We are still good at offense, but we could definitely improve,” said Bohorad.
Julian Rios ’26 illustrated his quick and aggressive win during Wednesday’s match against Nobles, where he pinned his opponent in thirty seconds. Yet, Rios credited his teammates’ support and morale as what placed him in the right mindset for his match.
“I think definitely just the team overall, they support each other very well. Like everyone’s always cheering for each other on the sidelines and I think that helps a lot because it really allows us to feel like we’re part of something bigger and we’re not only wrestling just for ourselves, wrestling for a team. So during those moments where we could just give up and lose and so we think about our team and push a little bit more,” Rios said.
All-Gender Wrestling will have its next match away at Deerfield on Saturday.
