Norton takes 2nd at Phillips Academy Tournament
WEST NEWBURY — The Wakefield High wrestling team earned two more wins on Saturday when they traveled to Pentucket Regional to take on the Panthers and Tyngsborough/Dracut.
The Warriors rolled to victory in both matchups, topping Tyngsborough/Dracut, 50-27 and Pentucket, 66-18.
Wakefield trailed Tyngsborough/Dracut 12-0 after the first two bouts and 27-17 after the 150 matchup before winning the final six bouts in a row to run away with it.
Sean Callanan started that 6-0 rally at 157 with a pin of Nicholas Tang in 57 seconds.
Jaden Fullerton (165, 1:16) and Ryan Hogan (175, :58) followed with quick pins of their own and Nick Roehrich kept it going with an 8-2 decision over Hamzah Gargaja.
Wakefield’s heavyweights finished it up with two more pins as Ahmed Othman finished the job in 2:57 against Adam Maltby at 215 and Kip King pinned Jaden Merwin in 56 seconds at 285.
Also earning wins against the Tigers were Michael Barry (120, TF 21-5), Josh Johansen (126, F 1:30) and Aydin Lamb (132, F 1:42).
The Warriors didn’t get the same challenge on paper against the Panthers with Wakefield winning 9 of the 11 contested bouts, but plenty of those were hard-earned, back-and-forth matchups.
Wakefield got victories from Barry (126, F 1:18), Lamb (132, F :49), Callanan (157, F 1:19), Roehrich (190, F 4:53), Othman (215, F 3:35), King (285, F :38), Kevin Fabbri (106, F :48), Jason Correia (113, F 1:05), James Fabbri (144, F 3:06) and Haadi Qureshi (150, F 3:59).
Wakefield had two representatives compete at the Phillips Academy Girls’ Wrestling Tournament on Sunday: Sabrina DaFonseca and Teagan Norton.
Norton took 2nd place in her bracket, going 2-1 on the day. She earned victories over Maria De Melo Barros of Salem with a hard-fought pin in 3:54 before pinning Lexington Christian’s
Linnea Sidell in 1:51. Norton fell to Toni Elliot of Phillips Academy in the championship bout.
Wakefield will get back to league dual meet action tomorrow night, 6 p.m. when they travel to Burlington. The Warriors are undefeated in Middlesex League dual meets.
Including their matchup against the Red Devils, Wakefield has three more events in the regular season. They host Arlington, Greater Lowell Tech, Lynn Voke and Whittier Tech in a super quad at the Charbonneau Field House on Saturday at 9 a.m. before their biggest matchup of the season on Thursday, Feb. 6, 6:30 p.m. when they will meet Melrose at the annual Brawl in the Hall.