Wrestling Dominates at New Englands
Big Red wrestling competed in another exciting New Englands this weekend, earning a seventh-place ranking among the New England prep schools. Individual wrestlers will head to Prep Nationals after taking home a bid at New Englands.
Senior and co-captain Tyler Morris secured first place in the 132-pound weight class, senior George Harrington placed second in the 285-pound division and upper Christian Petry earned third in the 106-pound weight class. Senior Grant Goodall and prep Chris MacArthur are also headed to Prep Nationals in the 185 and 220 weight classes, respectively. These wins bumped up the Exeter Wrestling record to 8 wins and 3 losses, a fantastic record for the season.
Senior George Harrington smashed during New Englands. According to Morris, “George Harrington had a stand out first match. In that match, George was able to escape three times and win a gritty one in the fourth overtime.” Morris himself was an obvious standout wrestler this past weekend as well. He is the current New England champion after this recent match, a title that Morris has earned with hard work throughout the season.
Despite Big Red’s fantastic performance during New Englands, they still have an even bigger event and a lot of preparation ahead. “We just need to pace ourselves a bit better. Sometimes we rush moves and sometimes we put ourselves in tough situations. Going into nationals, we just need to focus on the little details which will win us big matches,” Morris said. This strategy will hopefully help Big Red surge throughout the entire match and dominate their opponents at Prep Nationals.
The team was well prepared and determined heading into this big match. Morris said, “The team has been focused all season on taking one match at a time. We take one match at a time and plan on winning all those matches. Living in the moment, especially in wrestling, is huge; every match starts 0-0 and both wrestlers get to the line ready to give their all out on the mat.”
This mentality has pushed Big Red to success all season and certainly showed at New Englands. Hopefully, Big Red can keep the same mentality going into this weekend’s Prep Nationals, so they once again can have an outstanding performance.
As the team looks forward to Prep Nationals, held at Lehigh University, the five wrestlers will be working extremely hard. The rest of the team is ready to back them up and cheer on their teammates. After a season filled with high placements, they are fueling up and getting ready to dominate yet another time.
Morris, too, is ready for a fight. “Burn the ships, because we’re coming for them all.”