Miles Palmer ’23, pictured above in a prior meet against St. Paul’s, is a Co-Captain for Andover Wrestling.
Andover All-Gender Wrestling traveled to St. Paul’s on Saturday to compete in the Class A Interschols tournament. The tournament served as a showcase for Team Abbot, the name of the female and femme-aligning section of the team, as it has already qualified to wrestle at the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council (NEPSAC) tournament. However, for Team Prep, the name of the general all-gender team, it was crucial that members of the team performed well in order to qualify for New Englands. Only a select few succeeded.
Tasha Bohorad ’26 said, “I think the team did so well. Individually I think people were happy with their performances. Some people were more happy than others, but overall the team placed really well in everything and speaking for Team Abbot, there weren’t that many girls there so we were very dominant as a team. In the Prep division, I think everyone wrestled really well. There was some pretty good competition from [Northfield Mount Hermon] and other schools, but I think everyone was pretty happy with the results.”
According to Ophelia Lee ’26, the atmosphere of the tournament was loud and chaotic, given the amount of athletes that were competing.
“[It’s] the first year that they had a girls division for Class A’s and it was a lot louder than I thought it would be. It was quite busy, a bunch of teams were there. They had the team room, they had three mats open, and a lot of TV’s on display and everyone was traveling between all the rooms, trying to figure out when they were going to compete, who on their team was competing, and what to watch. So it was pretty busy, everyone was walking around and making noise,” said Lee.
Margaret Tsien ’26 received a shout-out from Bohorad, who highlighted Tsien’s determination as she went up against the same opponent from St. Paul’s three times. Bohorad noted how impressive it was that Tsien was able to persevere despite losing her first match.
Bohorad said, “There were only two people in her bracket, so she just wrestled the same girl three times. The other girl is from St. Paul’s, her name is Maddie, she was super nice, but she was definitely a super tough wrestler, super strong. Margaret lost the first one, won the second one by points [it was] really close, and lost the third one. So I think it’s just really tough to go against the same opponent three times, [and] I just think Margaret did an amazing job.”
Lee pointed out Ben Forman’s ’23 impressive performance in an incredibly intense match. It ultimately came down to a one point difference, meaning that every moment in the match was crucial towards the win.
Lee said, “I liked Ben Forman’s match. It was towards the last seconds of the third period… he was holding his opponent to the ground, and if his opponent stood up, he would’ve gotten one point for the stand up, they would’ve been tied, and he would have had to go into overtime. But he held his opponent down for the very last seconds, until the timer ran out, then he took the win. So that was really intense, and everyone was cheering.”
As the season nears its end, the NEPSAC tournament stands as one of the final opportunities for Andover to display its talent. Lee called attention to the fact that Team Abbot has qualified for the tournament, and after the match at St. Paul’s, so has some of Team Prep.
“[I’m] excited for New Englands [NEPSAC]. Yeah Class A’s is basically, at least for the Prep team, the qualifiers, you had to qualify to be able to participate in New England’s which is why it’s such a big thing. But for Team Abbot, the girls team, you don’t have to qualify because there’s just not enough people to qualify,” said Lee.
Andover will compete in New England’s on Friday and Saturday at home.
