Wrestling Places 2nd at Class A Championships

Boys’ Varsity Wrestling pulled out a successful Class A run this Saturday, taking home second place at a championship tournament at the Hyde School. Many of Big Red’s wrestlers placed at the top of the podium: upper Christian Petry won the 106 pound weight class, senior and co-captain Tyler Morris won the 132 weight class and senior George Harrington won the 285 weight class.However, it was not just the top place finishers who had outstanding performances. Petry said that this tournament “was especially impressive, given where the team was at the beginning of the season. We had a lot of guys come onto the team pretty raw, and we’ve done a good job of getting better throughout the season.”Prep Jonathan Jeun agreed. “For five weeks, our team has been looking forward to this tournament, and the success has made the struggle worth it.”In addition to being first in his weight division, Morris was jubilant about the number of wrestlers the team qualified for New Englands. “I couldn’t be any more proud of the growth of my team through the season. After the tournament, I said to Coach Hudson, ‘If you told someone we’d qualify nine kids for New Englands and take second at Class A’s, they would’ve laughed in your face.’ The team definitely overachieved.”Harrington had a particularly impressive final match, wrestling in one of the last matches of the entire tournament. Jeun noted that the fatigue was settling on the whole team, but Harrington “pulled through against a tough opponent to claim first place.”Harrington’s fellow winners had remarkable matches as well. Morris took down almost all of his opponents in the first period, while Petry pinned one of his opponents in fewer than 15 seconds.Senior Grant Goodall’s performance was a prime example of how hard he has worked in his entire Exeter wrestling career. Despite struggles at first, he was able to stick with the sport and push himself to keep improving throughout the years. This weekend, Goodall came in third place. “It’s a good testament to the program, him taking third. I was proud to watch him,” Petry said.Prep Chris MacArthur described how the team’s dynamic helped them bring home second place, expressing his appreciation for the leaders. “The captains really helped the team. Tyler popped off, but he also helped get everyone cheering for each other.”Throughout the entire tournament, the team pushed each other to perform their best and do what was necessary to gain a competitive edge. Morris emphasized that the team was a family. “I have 13 brothers in the starting lineup that I’d take a bullet for, and I truly believe they’d take a bullet for me as well.”Big Red will travel in two weeks to compete at the New Englands Championship, with hopes to do as well as they did in Class As, if not even better.