At the tenth Annual Female Wrestling Tournament, Dani Nugent ’25 was named Outstanding Wrestler and won first place in her respective weight class
Co-Captains of the Wrestling team Dani Nugent ’25 and Julian Rios ’26 competed in the 2024 Defense Soap Super 32 Challenge, both earning All-American Status after finishing seventh and fourth respectively on the weekend of October 12. The Defense Soap Super 32 Challenge is a highly competitive wrestling tournament featuring top-ranked athletes from across the nation. The Andover Wrestling Program now has two of the three Massachusetts All-Americans.
Rios described his pre-tournament preparations, attributing his successes to the people around him. Last year, Rios competed in the Super 32 Challenge with a sprained ankle, placing 20th in the 106-pound weight class.
“I owe all my coaches and my drill partners a lot to my success on the wrestling mat. I was doing the right things off the mat… I was running more often and working out on the side doing little things, eating right, getting mentally. My mental preparation was good, I wasn’t too worried about the tournament all the way until I actually got there. That helps a lot because you don’t want to build up this nervous feeling,” said Rios.
Nugent joined her wrestling club, Doughboys in Lowell, last summer after competing at Nationals. Over the last year, Nugent refined her wrestling even more and has closely monitored her routine to boost her performance.
“These practices [at Doughboys] have ranged from folkstyle practices with my club team, as well as private practices with my dad and a few other girls, so it’s been a lot of fine-tuning, perfecting what I’ve been working on for the past years. As well as just focusing on what’s good for my body, what I’m taking in, what I’m lifting. Overall just getting myself into a better routine than I had been in the past, which was a big factor,” said Nugent.
With over 2,250 wrestlers at the tournament, Rios shared his excitement in watching other talented wrestlers compete and working with his teammates. He also appreciated the opportunity to see his efforts in training come into fruition in competition.
“The tournament was awesome. A lot of really good wrestlers — you get to watch them in between your matches. It was a really fun experience getting to be with my team, all of us working together, all our hard work you get to show on the mat during the tournament,” said Rios.
Head Coach Kassie Bateman applauded Rios for his resilience and unique wrestling style which earned him an 11th place rank nationally. Rios went into the tournament seeded tenth, going on to defeat three wrestlers seeded higher than him, the ninth seed, fifth seed, and second seed, respectively.
“He didn’t adjust his wrestling to match theirs. He wrestled his match and his technique. It’s also hard to come back and win so many matches after a loss… He didn’t give up once he had solidified his All-American status (top eight); he kept wrestling hard all the way until his 4th place match. As a result of his performance, Julian is now ranked 11th nationally in his weight class,” wrote Bateman in an email to The Phillipian.
The girls national standings have not yet been released. However, Nugent previously ranked 15th nationally in her weight class. In the tournament, Nugent had a dominant 8-0 victory over the fourth-ranked wrestler in her weight class in the tournament. Coach Batemen outlined her matches, praising her mental composure.
“She went 5-2; after she lost her second match, she thought she was done; she didn’t realize there would be a match for seventh place. Her shoes were off and she was walking out the door when she realized she had another match. It is so tough to be out of the mental headspace and then have to jump back into another match. Dani got the job done and defeated her opponent 10-0 (a technical fall) in under two minutes,” wrote Bateman.
Although Nugent placed third in the 2023 Tournament, she believed that her performance was much better this year, having fought through tough matches and performing well mentally.
“I placed third last year, whereas I placed seventh this year, but looking back at [the] film and how I felt, I feel like I wrestled so much better this year. My bracket was pretty stacked, and I did well last year, but this year, I just feel like mentally I went into these matches with more confidence and came out of them feeling better than I did last year. So despite the result, I’m still happy with how I performed,” said Nugent.
