The Marblehead/Swampscott wrestling team competed in the inaugural Tri-State Cup on January 25. The Triton Vikings, the Pelham Pythons, and the York Wildcats all competed in the meet with Triton taking home the cup going 3-0.
Despite not winning the tournament, the Black and Blue performed well and placed second at the meet with a 2-1 record despite having to face some adversity.
“First up were the host Vikings, and down four starters, we had an uphill battle all day,” head coach Michael Stamison said.
Despite missing four wrestlers, the Black and Blue performed well with Jaymes Carey (via forfeit), Liam O’Brien (12-1 decision), Mason Hinshaw (pinfall), Alejandro Haven (9-4 decision), and Justin Gonzalez (pinfall) all picking up wins in the first match against Triton.
The five wins weren’t enough as the Vikings beat Marblehead/Swampscott 51-25.
“Hats off to the Vikings, their kids bought in and don’t get pinned easily. Solid team that Coach Shawn and his staff have,” Stamison said. “We also saw exhibition wins from Graham Ferretti and Jayvery Monegro.”
Then it was a back-and-forth battle with Pelham. Marblehead/Swampscott got out to an early 12-0 lead thanks to a pinfall victory from Jaymes Carey and then a forfeit taken by Soren Lorenz meant the Black and Blue came out of the gates strong.
Pelham made a run of its own with two pins to tie the match at 12.
Marblehead/Swampscott answered back with back-to-back pinfalls, the first coming from Liam O’Brien. Then, still searching for his first varsity win, Nolan Glass pinned his opponent’s shoulders to the mat to cement his first win.
The match kept going back and forth and going into the final two matches where the Black and Blue needed back-to-back pins to win.
“We had to wrestle for a tie needing two pins, and to potentially win via tiebreaker criteria. We elected to forfeit to Pelham stud Billy Nicolls, who defeated Colin Hart in the Gionet finals a few weeks ago. Colin bumped up to 215 to gain the first of the needed pins, and then Justin Gonzalez stepped up in the clutch and pinned Victor Zannoni for the second time this season to make it a 42-42 tie, with us winning the match via tiebreaker criteria (after a lengthy reading of the rule book),” Stamison said.
After understanding the rules, Marblehead/Swampscott won 43-42.
Then against the York Wildcats, the Black and Blue won its final six matches to win 54-30.
“We took over with 6 straight wins, with pins from Mason, Colin, Xavier, and Jayvery, and forfeits picked up by Phineas and Alejandro,” Stamison said. “Very excited for this event to continue to grow, with more teams potentially added, outstanding wrestler awards to be awarded.”
After the tournament, Marblehead/Swampscott’s record moved to 9-6.