By JENNIFER GENTILE
MELROSE—The Melrose High state champion wrestling team returns after another fantastic season and are quickly securing wins on the mat after a season opening appearance at the Ashland Tournament last weekend, where they placed 9 wrestlers.
Melrose is led by sole captain Nico Chiulli, a senior who’s on the injured list, but still ready to help guide his teammates to what should be another winning campaign that stretches out into a post season.
Melrose has just five seniors on their large, 36-wrestler squad, with a very strong sophomore and junior class. Those upperclassmen include seniors Gabe La Verde, Kimani Reid, Pedro Ribeiro, Jacob Guzman and Luke Spencer, all starters who are expected to earn wins for Melrose.
Promising underclassmen include Marco Albanese (138) Quinn Fogarty (157) Johnny Moraes (126) Mike Thomas (120) and Luke Brodeur, who placed first at the Ashland Tournament. Along with Jack Shea (113) and Jacob Guzman (165). At Ashland, Thomas place third in his class. Jack Shea went 3-1 for third place. Jake Guzman placed 5th and Marco Albanese placed 4th. Quinn Fogarty had 5 wins for third place and Scott Santos had 3 wins for a 5th place finish.
Freshman Luke Kelly earned his first match.
Look for heavyweight slots to be filled by Scott Santos, Jack Ruelle and Alejandro Lopez.
While Melrose is used to winning, and winning big, this year there’s reason to have realistic expectations, given senior graduations and early injuries. Notes Melrose head coach Larry Tremblay, “Last year we had 10 state finishers, we lost 4 to graduation and have lost a few now to injury, so we are looking at about 4 current state finishers. We’d like to add to that.”
While that makes the deck fairly stacked against them, having so many wrestlers on hand (over 30!) is only a good thing.
“We’re Div. 2 now and I like the challenge,” says Tremblay. “We have the toughest schedule imaginable. Competing in quads against the states best and competing in Lowell. That’s how these kids get better. We’re down two strong wrestlers so that puts us at a disadvantage but I expect us to do well in our dual season and a lot of these kids will get wins all year.”
Melrose’s home opener was on Thursday (post deadline) against Belmont and they won’t host against until January 10th when they take on Burlington.