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Sunday, December 23
Wrestlers Take Down A-B; Capture Lisitano Championship -12/23/04
Sudbury Town Crier - 12/23/04
Written by Bill Jansen
Wednesday last, the 15th of December, the second of the matches in the new Warrior Dome, a Dual County League affair, hit the Resilite.
Acton-Boxboro came to town and probably wished it hadn't. A quick evening it was, and the cold evening was peppered with several strong matches from both sides of the patch of blue.
With the four-year-old rule of random start in effect, the evening commenced at 152. Danny Braun, a Lincoln-Sudbury captain, squared off with Nick Lampros, an A-B leader, and top-notch, high-level wrestling was the norm. Lampros featured a strong leg wrestling game and was able to get the best of Braunie, 11-3.
It was Braun's first loss of the season. A-B coaches both expect big things from Lampros and he did show his mettle. Although in the DCL, A-B wrestles in Division 1 and Braunie will unlikely face Lampros until the regular season ending DCL's in February.
In his first varsity competition, at 160, young Nico Von Stackleberg proved the family lineage has carried over as Von Stackleberg demolished Tony Holsap with a fall in 1:15. A-B, unable to provide a full lineup, forfeited the next two weight classes and this put L-S out in front 18-4 by the time Will Anderson, at 215, strode to the circle against Vladimir Luz. Anderson, also having watched his brother toil for L-S as did Von Stackleberg, made short work of Senor Luz, pinning him in :49. Way to go Willy!
Bumped up to heavy, Koby Elias, in a display of advanced technique, pinned Bobby Sonnes of A-B in 1:13 with the devilish iron cross, making the team score 30-4.
Back to the lower weights the meet proceeded. Evan Biller and Seth Myers, at 103, battled in a see-saw match, Biller finally forced to glare at the new ceiling lights near the end of the first period, in 1:44 seconds, to be precise. A-B had no 112 pounder so coach Harry Coffin declared a "no contest" at that weight.
Jumping to 119, Sammy Bores put on a strong display of high level grappling as Bores dismantled Alex Weber 16-2. This pushed the team score to 34-10.
Up next was "Dr. Tilt" Tim Leggett at 125. The good doctor eschewed his usual method of operation and made short work of Mike Ryan, pinning him at 1:42. This put the match away the team score zooming up to 40-10.
At 130, Nick Antico discombobulated Max T., scoring 11 points in the first period, alone. In the first move of the final period, Antico scored a takedown to put the match in a tech fall situation. A tech fall results when a wrestler outscores his opponent by 15 points.
The final score of the 130 match was 20-4 pushing the team score to 45 for the Warriors, 10 for the bad guys. L-S was forced to take the forfeit at 135, setting the stage for John Mackinnon at 140. The first period Johnny Mack scored a takedown, but had to wait until the second period, after giving up a takedown, to reverse and stick Mr. Hippy of A-B at 3:22. This put the team score, once again past 50 points, 57-10.
Lee Gavin, although getting the first takedown, was reversed and pinned by Joe Barbado making the final score 57-16. So, in the first two DCL matches, L-S has averaged 56.5 points and their competition just eight.
On Saturday, L-S took the drive up 128, got off in Wakefield, and proceeded over to Wakey High to defend its Lisitano Memorial Tournament championship, a championship L-S has copped three years in a row.
History has a tendency to repeat itself. Although the competition level jumped up quite a bit with the addition of two better than average D1 wrestling programs, Methuen and Plymouth South, the usual very strong D3 programs such as Lynnfield and Watertown, and the ever present D2 Central squads with whom L-S must contend in the sections, Catholic Memorial, Arlington, Malden Catholic and Belmont and several other nice programs, the Coffin-Quinn led Warriors pulled the victory out with a strong finish and, once again, rode the yellow dog back to Sudbury with the first-place trophy.
Going into the last rounds of the tourney, L-S found itself in second place, a full 24 points behind Catholic Memorial and only three points ahead of Plymouth South. With the strong finishes of two seniors and a junior, L-S beat Catholic Memorial by the slim margin of a solitary point, 215 to 214.
Most coaches go into early season tourneys to try and get a handle on where their squads stand. Coffin said as much on Saturday. Certainly Coffin must feel good about the results.
In the tourney finals, number one seed at 130, Eliot Gibbs, proved why he was number one in his weight. Gibbsie smashed his strong Methuen opponent in a first-period fall. At 152, it was Braun versus Brown. L-S's Braun got the best of Wakefield's Brown with a fall, as well. The poor Wakey lad was pinned for the Lisitano championship two years ago by another L-S lad, Jeremy Gentel. Hate to think how Wakefield backers must feel in regard to Warrior wrestling.
In a screamer of a final at 215, number one seed, L-S's own, Elias, came back from a huge minus margin and threw his Reading opponent in the last seconds of the match with a superb hip toss to cop the championship.
Elias showed why he is ranked in the state's best at 215. So, L-S, not knowing if it had a shot at winning the tourney, discovered the good news after all the wrestling was finished and the team scores were announced.
For those of the readership, who might wonder, tourneys of this size are won not with championships but rather with finishes in the top five. L-S had a slew of lads who finished either third or fourth. Antico, at 135, who just as well could have been a finalist, had the eventual champion, a Plymouth South grappler, on his back but failed to get the fall. NVS finished third with a fall over a Methuen grappler for the show finish. Also third was MacKinnon at 140. Mack literally demolished his Lexington opponent 17-4 in the third-place match.
Finishing fourth were Dave Ciampa at 112, who wrestled with veteran aplomb, losing 4-3 to a Methuen lad in the show match; Bores, at 119, who lost to a Reading grappler 7-3 for fourth; Leggett, at 125, drawing the same Mission Charter opponent he had lost to in the semis, 11-6, bowed out with a fourth, also. Due to time constraints set down in wrestling's rule book, the timing of all consolation matches is shortened, thereby ruining Leggett's strength of being on the mat with his tilt rides.
Deron Zambruno, at 171, exhibiting some staying power, was edged by a CM opponent for fourth to conclude the 3-4 place matches. Young sophomore, Von Stackelberg, at 160, won his fifth-place match by defeating his Reading opponent in a tech fall, winning by 15 points. Von Stackelberg just couldn't get the fall call. If Von Stackelberg gets the fall, L-S would have won the tourney by two rather than one point. If you're counting, L-S placed 10 out of 14 wrestlers in the salty tourney.
Team Scores
1. Lincoln-Sudbury, 215; 2. Catholic Memorial, 214; 3. Plymouth South, 195.5; 4. Methuen, 141.5; 5. Reading, 132.5; 6. Wakefield, 123; 7. Arlington, 99.5; 8. Malden Catholic, 91; 9. Lexington, 83.5; 10. Malden, 83.
It turned out to be a great day for L-S. But the current week will have really tested the mettle of the grappling Warriors, as Newton South will have come and gone to Warriorville on Tuesday, and, on Wednesday, in a Central Mass Sectional showdown, L-S and always strong Natick will have taken to Mr. Resilite.
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