The PA Wrestling team turned a slow start into a dominating performance on Saturday’s 55-18 win against their class A rival Choate Rosemary Hall. The meet contained both marathon matches and quick pins from several players on the Andover team, including newcomer Duncan Crystal’s ’10 superb 48-second pin. The Choate meet was the squads first match after a long winter vacation. The team opened the season with a win against Govoners Academy and a loss against Worcester in the opening home tri-meet. The win improved Andover’s record to 2-1 and its Class A league record to an even 1-1. The win also established the PA squad as a force to be reckoned with and as a contender for the New England Prep School Class A Wrestling Championship. The team’s day started off slowly when the normally long bus ride to Choate was made even longer than usual when the bus stopped to pick up several members of the PA swim team, whose bus broke down. Despite having to share their seats, the wrestlers were in good spirits as they made their way out onto the mat. Chris Latham ‘09 started off the match for PA at the 152 lb. weight class. Facing one of Choate’s co-captains and arguably its best wrestler, Latham put up a valiant effort, lasting into the third period before being pinned. In an unlucky twist of fate, Andover’s next opponent at 160 pounds proved to be the other of Choate’s captains, and newcomer Matt Lawlor ‘10 was unable to overcome his more-experienced opponent. Having dropped their first two matches, there were several worried faces along the Andover bench and the team turned to its more experienced players to give the team a moral boost. The team rallied after a win from returning 171-pounder Hector Cintron ‘08. The energy created form Cintron’s pin allowed PA to pull ahead of the opinion and to dominate the match. Co-captain Akshay Paintal ’07 pinned his opponent at 125 pounds with his signature cross-face cradle, and AJ Charles ‘07 took down a highly ranked opponent at 130 pounds to clinch the team score victory for Andover. With no pressure on him, 135 pound co-captain Colin Dunn won a narrow 5-1 victory. Scott Sanderson ’09 and Ben Elder ’09 then finished the match off with pins at 140 and 145 pounds respectively. Andover will travel to an away competition for a five team meet against Deerfield Academy, Providence Country Day School, Hyde (CT), and Hyde (ME) next Saturday.
