All-Girls Wrestling finished second behind Choate this past Sunday at its third annual 2024 Saint Paul’s Women’s Tournament. On top of culminating 116 points during the tournament, Andover also accomplished various individual wins with Dani Nugent ’25 and Serra Akyali ’28 securing first place in their respective weight class divisions.
Akyali, who finished first in the 100-pound division, highlighted Captain Dani Nugent ’25’s performance. Having pinned all her opponents within the first minute, Nugent demonstrated her excellence on the mat and proved why she is ranked seventh nationally in the Girls 138-pound division.
“A standout highlight was definitely Dani Nugent, she won in her weight class today. She pinned all of her opponents in under a minute and was just insane. A match that was really cool to watch was Tasha [Bohorad ’26’s] and Ophelia [Lee ’26’s]. They went double overtime against each other for the consolation bracket and the score was tied. They wrestled really hard and Tasha ended up escaping in the second period and winning the match but they both wrestled really well. Tasha got third and Ophelia fifth,” said Akyali.
Akyali also spoke about the training that the team has done during pre-season that translated over into the season opener while highlighting the prospective areas of improvement the team will aim to work on throughout the season.
“We worked really hard [during] pre-season and finals [week]. Our work really paid off because we were hitting all our different shots and even the new wrestlers knew their breakdowns and turns. We could definitely work on setting up our offense better, so we weren’t stuck in a position where we’d be sprawled in an ungainly position. Also working on getting out from bottom, which can be really exhausting at times but if we keep working on our switches we’ll be able to score points like crazy,” said Akyali.
Lee added onto Akyali’s point by commenting on the importance of building confidence that translates onto the mat. Despite the immense number of people who attended the tournament, Lee commended her coaches for being supportive and punctual throughout the match to help suppress the team’s nerves.
“It’s different for everyone but [gaining] confidence. A lot of people, me included, need to learn how to take shots more readily and set them up better and have more aggression in matches. There were a ton of girls there and everyone was kind of nervous because it was one of the first big tournaments for girls. The coaches were amazing today, they were always in the corner, shouting directions and instructions and making sure everyone got to their matches on time. They were really just so supportive through it all,” said Lee.
In folkstyle wrestling, wrestlers are able to choose their starting positions during the second and third periods. Consequently, Akyali talked about the coaches’ roles in guiding wrestlers to choose which stance to begin with based on understanding the wrestler’s respective styles and strengths. Akyali also talked about significant rule changes this year.
“The [coaches] talked to us during and before the match to get to know us and how to guide us. Also, the rules changed this year so a takedown is now three points instead of two and backpoints are much easier to score. Last year, if you held someone down for five seconds you would get three points, but now if you pulled someone near the back for four seconds you would get four seconds, so our coaches have been emphasizing the importance of backpoints this year which has helped us stack up our points the right way,” said Akyali.
Looking forward, Bohorad discussed how the team will prepare new wrestlers going forward by implementing a better setup and breakdown.
“This helped the new wrestlers really work with what they were comfortable with even if they didn’t have a really strong foundation for wrestling quite yet. For the returners, we’re just trying to get back into the season and specialize in what moves we want to hit. This tournament was a good way to see what we’ve been improving in and what we need to work on,” said Bohorad.
All-Gender Wrestling will go against St. Paul’s next on Wednesday.
