Co-Captain Ophelia Lee ’26 pins down her opponent at New Englands.
This past Saturday, Wrestling sent 22 wrestlers to compete in the New England Championships (New Englands) at Green Farms Academy. Five out of Andover’s 11 athletes who competed in the mixed-gender division placed in the tournament’s top eight scorers. In the same division, Andover placed sixth out of 44 teams, its highest placement in several years at New Englands. In the girls division, with four individual champions within the tournament, Andover placed second out of 28 teams, and nine competitors qualified for the National Prep Tournament this Saturday.
In practices leading up to the tournament, the team tapered its mental training to prepare for the difficult championship to come. Christian Robinson ’28 shared how the team worked on its mentality three days before the tournament.
“[We worked on] calming down our bodies, focusing on technique, and being intentional with short bursts of energy in our drilling. We had a super hard practice on Wednesday that our coach was very blatant about. That hard practice mentally prepared us for what New Englands was going to be, because we had [five to eight matches]. Having that practice before reminded us that we’re prepared for these moments. We’re ready for these moments that, both mentally and physically, help to set the tone,” said Robinson.
After spectating a lengthy match from Serra Akyali ’28 and competing in a lengthy match himself, Geza Labancz PG’26 explained the importance of the exertion training that the team underwent leading up to New Englands.
“Our cardio is pretty good. Conditioning, we focus on that, and we do a lot of it in practices. A lot of times, we see when [our conditioning comes into effect] going into late periods [of a match,] and we can still be on top mentally because of it. When I watched Serra, she went into double overtime and came out on top. I had a couple of long matches as well,” said Labancz.
According to Labancz, Akyali faced an opponent in her weight class finals whom she had wrestled before, previously winning by points rather than pins. At New Englands, the rematch tested her endurance as the same situation occurred, and she came out on top with another hard-fought win from points.
“Serra had a triple overtime match. She only won by one point. Wrestling matches are three periods. And wrestling, you can win by pin. If both on your shoulders are on the mat, you automatically lose. If you get 15 points more than your opponent, you ultimately win. If that doesn’t happen, you win by points, if the three periods are over… If you go through all eight minutes and end up on top is a huge accomplishment,” said Labancz.
During long tournaments, it is vital for the team to withstand not only physical strain from many matches, but also the mental endurance required to compete on the mat for up to 14 hours in one day. Labancz broke down his routine that allowed him to set a positive mindset for New Englands.
“Investing matches are a long time, so we got there at nine-ish. By 7:00 or 8:00 [A.M.], I’m weighed in, then warmed up, and the day ends at 9:00 [P.M.] The whole day you have to be in perfect shape, so I warm up, then I put clothes on, then I listen to music and the whole day I’m walking around. I’m eating enough but I don’t want to get too full, so you have to watch out for that. I’m always mentally envisioning what I will do next. I know my opponents at that point, so if I know if it’s going to be an easier opponent, mentally I’m more relaxed and in that mindset where I’m hyped up, but I’m also focused,” said Labancz.
According to Shock Ingram PG’26, one of the most fulfilling moments can be watching teammates improve their skills drastically throughout the season. He shouted out Cindy Zhou ’27 and Bella Shmuylovich ’26, two competitors who won their weight classes, both with an undefeated record of 2-0 at New Englands.
“A couple months is a long time, but if you think about it, it’s not that long, and seeing people develop and improve throughout that short amount of time really makes me happy… [Zhou] has gotten a lot better from the start of the season up until now… Bella, she’s a Senior. She did really [well] and has improved a lot,” said Ingram.
This Saturday, Andover will send several wrestlers to the National Prep Tournament.
