Beat - Boys Varsity Wrestling against Deerfield, Hyde, and Andover
By: Leo Zhang, Chelsea Zhao
The Academy’s varsity wrestling team achieved dominating wins against Andover 43-31 and Hyde 66-6 on Jan. 15. After a canceled meet on Jan. 8 and many setbacks regarding injuries and portions of the team unable to compete due to COVID, Big Red showed great resilience.
Head coach Dave Hudson praised the athletes for their efforts and perseverance. “Both teams struggled with injuries and COVID to put an experienced line-up out there,” he said. “We had some wrestlers without a lot of experience come through for us. Overall, a very solid performance.”
Senior Antar Dey agreed with coach Hudson. “It felt good to beat Andover. More importantly, it felt good to just be wrestling again. With COVID taking away a year of wrestling and our first match of the new year being canceled due to the return protocols, it was nice to just get matches,” he added.
Lower Alex Rosen talked about some of the challenges he faced. “On the day of the match, I was actually bumped up to another weight class so I ended up going against someone who was about 30 pounds heavier than me. It was definitely a bit intimidating but when I finally got in the adrenaline just took over. I had a great match but got tired and lost on points,” Rosen said.
The team was very supportive of one another. “It was great watching the team come together at this meet,” senior manager Jack Hudson said. “Teammates were crowded around the mat for each match, cheering and shouting, especially for the wrestlers stepping up to fill in for players that were out. Overall, the atmosphere was full of excitement and triumph for Big Red.”
Dey was proud of his teammate upper Jonathan Jeun’s performance. “Jeun is an integral part of our team so we all get really hyped up when it's his turn on the mat,” Dey said, “In Juen’s match against Andover, he hit a textbook high crotch into a double leg and the match was basically over from there. Love them or hate them, Andover's teams are always fun to go up against.”
Rosen also applauded his teammate, upper Nate Puchalski, “There were a lot of really exciting matches. I personally really liked Nate Puchalski's match. He's one of the best wrestlers on the team but had some really tough matches,” he said.
The team looks forward to upcoming matches. “The team is training hard to prepare for tougher battles coming up,” Hudson said.
With tournament season rapidly approaching, the team has many matches ahead of them. “We have Northern New Englands, New Englands, and Class A’s to look forward to,” Dey said. “Exeter is hosting Class A’s, so the whole team is looking forward to that.”
With strong wins under their belt, the team is ready to achieve more of their goals. “[We’re] taking things one day and one week at a time. Lots of big meets ahead of us. Trying to get healthy and training hard,” Dey said.
