FOXBOROUGH — Fresh off their Div. 3 North Sectional championship, the Wakefield High wrestling team traveled to Foxborough High on Friday and Saturday for the Div. 3 state meet. Continuing their terrific postseason run, the Warriors left town with a 2nd place finish as a team, racking up 113 points, just 3.5 behind state champion Tewksbury (116.5).
The Warriors had 3 individual champions, two 2nd place finishes and a 3rd place lead the way.
Senior Kip King (285) and junior Aydin Lamb (132) brought home state champion belts in the boys’ tournament while senior Teagan Norton (185) took the gold in the girls’ tournament.
Earning 2nd place finishes were sophomore Sabrina Dafonseca (165) in the girls’ tournament and senior Sean Callanan (157) in the boys’ tourney.
Junior Michael Barry (120) earned a 3rd place.
Senior Ryan Hogan (165) took 6th and senior Ahmed Othman (215) finished 8th.
Norton and Dafonseca represented Wakefield well in the girls’ tournament, also taking place in Foxborough.
Norton’s run to gold included two victories, both ending in lightning-fast pins. She took down East Longmeadow’s Cecilia Lieber in 28 seconds in the first match before making even quicker work in her second bout, pinning Mahar’s Makayla Butler in 19 seconds for 1st place. She will now get ready for the girls’ All-State championship in Methuen starting tomorrow.
The boys’ tournament was an epic showdown between some of the state’s best teams. Following Tewksbury and Wakefield in the top five was Bristol-Plymouth (95.5), Ashland (92) and Foxborough (85.5).
Wakefield head coach Ross Ickes identified Tewksbury as a top threat even after Wakefield finished ahead of them in the North Tournament. Each tournament provides different opportunities and strategies. Some teams are better suited to succeed in a sectional as opposed to a states or all states depending on matchups.
Those matchups ended up best suited for Tewksbury but the Warriors gave it everything they had and finished with plenty of success.
Of course, Lamb and King provided the headlines as champs.
King was somehow ranked 10th in the 285 bracket, a clear miscalculation that the senior seemed to take personally as he went 4-0 to claim the title.
He beat No. 7 Roberto Melendez of South Hadley by a 2-0 decision in the first round, earning a point on an escape in the 2nd period and another on a Melendez stall in the 3rd. In the quarterfinals, King was the underdog against Monument Mountain’s Sam St. Peter but a King escape in the 3rd sent it to overtime and eventually to six periods. King’s takedown in the 6th officially ended a hard-earned 7-3 decision. He kept it going against a familiar north opponent in No. 11 Dylan Matthews of Lynnfield/North Reading. King pinned him in 4:32. In the Finals, King matched up with No. 5 Dillon Laffond of Franklin County and never relinquished control after taking a 4-0 lead in the second on an escape and a takedown, eventually winning by a 4-1 decision.
Lamb also went 4-0 to earn gold. Lamb wrestled to his No. 1 ranking well, pinning each opponent he faced. He took down Hampshire’s Taylan McColgan in 1:50 before pinning Ashland’s Bobby Beyerle in 31 seconds in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, he pinned Matthew Costello of Hanover in 2:30. That set up a finals matchup with No. 3 Manuel Garcia of Dedham. No points were scored in the 1st period but Lamb took down Garcia in the second, earning a pin in 3:26 to seal the title.
Callanan also wrestled extremely well in an always loaded 157 bracket. He was ranked No. 2 and finished that way, going 3-1 for silver. He made quick work of Hanover’s Lochlan Garvey in the first round with a pin in 44 seconds. In the quarterfinals, Callanan fought off a tough Joseph Cavallo of Wayland, scoring 11 points in a row after Cavallo scored the first points of the bout with an early takedown. Callanan ended up winning by an 11-3 major decision. In the semifinals, Callanan matched up with No. 3 Jack Ramondetta of Bristol-Plymouth. Callanan was in control from start to finish, earning a 10-3 decision. He squared up with top-ranked Adrian Guzman of Ashland in the finals, scrapping for the distance and avoiding a pin but eventually coming up short by a 21-5 technical fall.
Barry’s 3rd place at 120 came after he went 4-1 for the tournament. A 19-5 major decision over Jayden Perrier of Southwick-Tolland led to a quarterfinal pin in 5:55 against Brennan Chisholm of Bristol County/Dighton Rehoboth. Barry, ranked No. 7, was down 9-4 in the 3rd against No. 2 Chisholm but miraculously put together 9 points in a row on an escape, a takedown and two near falls before he completed the pin. Barry ran out of energy after that gauntlet, falling to Weston’s Jisup Shin in a semifinal major decision. Barry bounced back by pinning Foxborough’s Raj Jetty in 2:41to make the 3rd place bout. There, Barry won an epic battle against Gloucester’s Jayden Chadwick ending in a 7-6 decision. Chadwick was up 6-4 in the 3rd but Barry once again battled back, reclaiming the lead for good on a takedown.
Hogan went 3-3 at 165, earning victories over Decklan Mcdevitt of Pembroke (6-4 DEC), Dominic Dignard of Monument Mountain (F, 1:28) and Kevin Ozulumba of Ashland (MD, 10-0).
At 215, Othman had wins over Jackson Morey of Franklin County (F, 3:46) and Jamie Medina of South Hadley (4-1 DEC).
Earning spots at the boys All State Tournament held at Methuen tomorrow and Saturday against the very best in Massachusetts will be King, Lamb, Callanan and Barry.