Wrestling Team Secures the Class A Championship And Places Second at New Englands
The boys’ varsity wrestling team closed out their season this winter with an excellent record of 8-3, securing the Class A championship and placing second in New Englands. While the team will suffer the loss of four graduating seniors next year, their upper captains hope to keep the team closely bonded and determined—a well-earned reputation of the wrestling team—in preparation for another successful season.
Upper and captain Quinn Abrams called this year’s season “memorable for sure” both for “the school and for myself and my teammates.” The season consisted of a number of great moments that exceeded both the expectations of the players and the coaches. Indeed, both Abrams and prep Hayden Brown placed eighth in Nationals, and upper Joey Rossetti placed third. All three qualified as All-Americans. “It was a year of accomplishment,” Abrams said, “as we accomplished goals that were far out of reach, and a year for strength, as the team had been broken up from injured teammates. The loss of other teammates made weight classes tough to fill-but, but in the end we were able to prevail over the vast majority of the competition that we faced.”
The team’s record clearly reflects their success, and their frequent wins can be attributed not only to the efforts of the team’s top players, but also to the hard work of each and every wrestler on the squad. “Our team this past season was a strong one, mixed with many lowers, uppers and seniors,” Abrams said. He lamented the loss of the seniors, especially Jeffrey MacArthur and Stephen Cerrone, saying that next year “will be a much different year without them in the practice room and at competitions, with respect to the team's camaraderie and strength” and describing MacArthur and Cerrone as “the ones who kept spirits high during times of strife, and they were guys who we could always trust and rely on.”
“We will fight anyone to the death to let them know that we are better and more deserving of being the top dogs.”
Although Abrams loved the team’s close bond, it made will be difficult for him to see the seniors leave the squad. “With every sport, there is always that nostalgia of last year’s team and the cohesiveness of a team and how you worked together. Wrestling is like that, only that it is the sport that competitors bond the most in,” he said.
While Lower Kevin Lyskawa also admired this year’s seniors, he pointed to a few of his teammates as other key members of their squad. “I want to take a moment to mention the hard work that our captain Joey Rossetti broughtevery day,” Lyskawa said. “He always arrived to practice early and set a standard for every new and experienced wrestler in the room.”
Lyskawa added that although the team’s overall performance was excellent, it could have been even better without the injury of one of their best wrestlers, upper AJ Pedro. “With the injury of Pedro, we lost a very influential wrestler. Injuries occurred throughout the season. I give credit to many of my teammates who fought through them,” he said. While the team will also have to struggle through the loss of several impressive seniors next year, Lyskawa still remained optimistic for the future. He believes the incoming athletes will “fill in the missing gaps in our lineup.”
Similarly, Abrams recognized that the possible recruits for next year are promising. “We have some incoming wrestlers to our program, to hopefully fill some of the weight classes that we have lost and to additionally boost the strength of our program even more,” he said.
By the numbers, the team’s performance this season was excellent. They competed well against dozens of other schools in larger tournaments, and took on tough head-to-head competition with the same fervor and strength. The team hopes to repeat this performance next year, with perhaps an even better outcome at the New England Championships. “Those of us who will be returning next year are all very excited for whatever challenges are to be thrown at us next year,” Abrams said. “We competed well during our regular season, at Class A's, New England's and at Nationals, but as every true wrestler knows, once you set the bar high enough, you shatter it, and then set it higher. That is what we plan to do next year.”
Looking ahead, the team is ready and excited to begin a new season next winter. Abrams described their mentality as “refined, rested and ready to hit the ground Running.” The team has already been training throughout spring term, and plan to continue their intensive workouts until the end of the off-season.
Abrams hopes to make the 2016-2017 season especially great, as it will be his last year on the team. “From a personal standpoint for those of us who are seniors, this is our last year to compete like this, and in a sport like wrestling, we will fight anyone to the death to let them know that we are better and more deserving of being the top dogs,” he said.
Lyskawa agreed with Abrams’ assessment of the team’s mentality. Like always, the team will strive to dominate the league, reclaiming the New Englands title they had won only two years ago. “Next year, we are looking to be just as strong, if not stronger as we have a few incoming recruits,” Lyskawa said. “We will be hungry to proving ourselves again as being one of the strongest, most dominant teams in new England.”