Wrestling Wins Class A Championships
On Saturday, the varsity wrestling team traveled to Williston Northampton School in Easthampton, Mass. to compete in the Class A Championships. Big Red dominated the 12 other teams in the division. In the end, Exeter finished first with 232.5 points, 23.5 points ahead of its closest opponent.
Exeter’s team of 12 had multiple top three finishes in individual weight classes. First place finishes came from lower Hayden Brown, senior Aidan Whitis, senior and co-captain Quinn Abrams and senior and co-captain AJ Pedro in the 113, 152, 170 and 182 weight class, respectively. Runner-up performances came from senior Abhijay Bhatnagar, senior Josh Hemintakoon and upper Kevin Lyskawa in the 120, 132 and 145 weight class, respectively. Senior Kelechi Nwankwoala delivered a third place finish in the 220 weight class.
Senior and co-captain Joey Rossetti highlighted Nwankwoala and lower John Beckerle’s performance as standout performances. Abrams also praised Hemintakoon and Lyskawa for wrestling “exceptionally” especially when they faced stiff competition in their final bracket.
According to Rossetti, the team performed well as a whole. “We did what we needed to do to win the title,” he said. Abrams expressed that the team had some hiccups throughout the tournament, but considering the tough competition the team faced, it performed well.
Both Rossetti and Abrams agreed that the team can improve on getting the pin when it needs to. Rossetti stressed the importance for his teammates to score points. “Guys on the team can improve on getting the pins when it is expected to get them in order to gain team points,” he said. Despite the win, Abrams expressed that the margin of victory wasn’t as comfortable as he’d hoped. “The margin of error was a little closer this time, and honestly it unsettled me slightly that we were not able to widen the gap in front of the other schools,” Abrams said.
Abrams elaborated that he wants the team to be more of a “cohesive unit of comradery, to keep good spirits and to cheer and support everyone on the team when they wrestle.” Big Red’s next competition will be this coming Saturday when it will travel to Hyde School to compete in the New England Championships, the climax of the wrestling season for many wrestlers. Many of the schools from the Class A Championships will be present again.
Both Abrams and Rossetti emphasized the importance of the meet. “We need to focus on what we truly want in this offseason and the goals we want to achieve,” Rossetti said. The team will be looking for redemption and to reclaim the championship after losing to Belmont Hill School by a tiny margin last year.