Wrestling completed its final quad-meet of the season at the Seabrooke Duals this past weekend at Exeter, with strong performances in each weight class. Bolstered by a tough string of practices, the team walked into the duals with confidence, securing two victories over Exeter and Brooks but falling to Belmont Hill. The team is now looking forward to tournament season, as it enters the late stages of the season.
Matthew Lam ’28 described the team’s strength during practice, with the team’s work ethic on full display.
“I would say that the team was well prepared. Everybody practiced hard throughout the weekend, the prior days, and trained hard outside of practice as well in the weight room,” said Lam.
Christian Robinson ’28 praised the team’s captains for rallying the team through the particularly challenging meet. In addition, he credited Oliver Rogers ’28 with winning two matches by pin to fill in for an injured teammate.
“The fact that everyone was supportive, that everyone wasn’t quitting, especially all the captains, James [Bae ’26], Julian [Rios ’26], Ophelia [Lee ’26], Tasha [Bohorad ’26], the captains were rallying us together. I really want to shout out Oliver Rogers. He wrestled two really big varsity matches. He won both by pin. His energy and his enthusiasm, not giving up, being patient, fighting to the third period, and then looking for that last-second pin. He racked up a lot of points with that and helped us win decisive matches,” said Robinson.
After a teammate was injured, Rogers stepped up and showed out. Nervous at the start, he walked away from his 2 varsity matches with 2 wins in his first varsity starts of the season.
“So we started the match, and I was losing. He was just way stronger, and I couldn’t break the grip. At that point, I thought he was so much stronger than me that I wouldn’t be able to beat him. But then he made a really big mistake towards the end, and I got the pin. I was really happy and felt like I got lucky on the first one,” said Rogers.
Oliver Rogers summarized the team’s overall performance at the duals, emphasizing the team’s stamina in long matches due to intensive conditioning.
“We performed really well. A bunch of the guys went into overtime, which is after three periods, and you need really great conditioning for that. Everyone’s conditioning was really good, and everyone did their part. No one half-baked it, and it was really good because everyone tried their best, and it really showed,” said Rogers.
Heading into tournament season, Robinson outlined the team’s goals for preparing for the challenges ahead.
“We don’t have any other quad meets other than the end of Exeter, but we’re taking the losses against tough competition and using them to see what we need to build on, different skills we didn’t hit, places where we had gaps in our cardio, or different areas we want to really hone in on,” said Robinson.
Wrestling will continue its season at Northern New England Invitational Tournament (Northerns) on Saturday, January 31.
