NashuaBGCGN: 2006-2007 season

The Boys and Girls Club of Greater Nashua fifth-sixth grade wrestling team and BGCGN, Fairgrounds, Pennichuck and Elm Street Middle School squads traveled to Manchester Central High School on Sunday for the New Hampshire Middle School State Championships. The top four finishers in each weight class at the previously-held Regionals competed in the the Granite Class at States, while the remaining competitors particpated in the Slate Class tournament.

Wrestlers placing in the top three in the Granite Class qualified for the New England Middle School Championships to be held in Hudson, Mass., on March 4. In the fifth-sixth grade division of the Granite Class, Marcel Laplante won the 75-pound state title with a 3-0 record, including one pin.

Elm Street Tyler Elwood (2-1) earned a silver medal, just missing a state title with a heartbreaking overtime loss in the 100-pound finals. Joe Chimelski and Evan Manns placed second and third, respectively, in the 105-pound weight class. Travis Rice (3-1) took the bronze at 80.

Dan Breese, who had won the 110-pound Regional title to earn the No. 1 seed in the state tournament, had to be scratched from the event after breaking his arm snowboarding. Pennichuck Danny Michaud won the fouth place copper medal at 120, as did Kennedy Kiriga of Fairgrounds at 65.

Also competing in the Granite Class for Fairgrounds were Mike Silva, Joe Gouveia and Alex Smith. In seventh-eighth grade division action, Elm Street TJ Duran (2-1, 1 pin) was the 80-pound runner up. His teammates, Jon Espinal and Matt Terrin, took the bronze in the 171 and 100 classes, respectively.

Pennichuck Derek Baldwin and Mike Muise placed fouth at 137 and 115, respectively. Fairgrounds grapplers Matt Glastetter, Rich Gamez and Gustavy Gamez also wreslted in the Granite Class. In the Slate Class, BGCGN, Pennichuck Middle School squad placed third in the fifth-sixth grade competition, with late-season addition Liam Curran surprising the field by placing first at 65 pounds and Raiders teammate Guy Barroso tops at 85.

Jesse Kliss (2-2) was fourth at 75, while his Fairgrounds teammate Nate Burner was also a Granite Class entry. Hudson sixth grader Adam Garside (2-1, 1 pin) took the silver medal at 95. In seventh-eighth grade action, Leo Barroso of Pennichuck topped the field at 109, as did Elm Street Chris Anderson at 160.

Fairgrounds first place finshers included Tyler Palmer at 200 and Mike Sliz (3-0) at 155. Oscar Ayala of Pennichuck was the runner-up at 120, as was Fairgrounds 80-pounder Andrew Keefe (2-1). Elm Street TJ BellAndrew Valcourt, Justin Hart and Tyler Hunphrey earned third-place at 192, 137 and 128, respectively. took the silver at 150, while teammates

Mike Brannen of Fairgrounds (3-1) took the 160 bronze medal. Nick Barker of Elm Street was fourth at 138, as were Fairgounds 110-pounder Connor Humber (2-2) and heavyweight Brad Carrier. Rounding out the Fairgrounds Slate Class roster were Will Ulrich, Anthony Monaco, Kelsy Levesque and Mike Warneka.

BOYS CLUB - The Boys and Girls Club of Greater Nashua fifth-sixth grade squad stood tall despite being shorthanded at the Rundlett Middle School Invitational in Concord on Saturday.
Competing with only seven wreslters, the BGCGN squad outscored 20 other teams to place third in the fifth-sixth grade division, and earned four individual championships, one runner-up and one third place finish. Turning in a record of 17-4 on the day BGCGN was outscored only by the full-rostered Milford Middle School and host Rundlett Middle School teams.
Travis Rice(75 pounds, 3-0, 1 pin), Marcel Laplante (72, 3-0, 2 pins), Gabe Gosselin (90, 3-0, 2 pins) placed first in their respective weight, as did Tyler Elwood from Elm Street Middle School team, who defeated runner-up and Boys Club teammate Dan Breese (2-1, 2 pins) in the 100-pound finals.
Mike Silva (72, 3-1, 2 pins), who also wrestles on Fairgrounds Middle School team, earned a third place medal. Kyle Ducharme also competed for the Nashua team.

BGCGN posted 31 wins, including six first place finishers at the Merrimack Youth Elementary School Round Robin event at the Merrimack Middle School on Saturday.
In the third and fourth grade bracket, Nick Drohan (3-0, 1 pin) was tops at 85 pounds, as was Mike Gilham (2-1, 1 pin) at 92. Kevin Melanson (3-0, 2 pins) and Jake Valeri (3-0, 3 pins) finshed in first place in the 60 and 55 clases, respectively. Ryan Rice took the top spot at 65, pinning all three of his opponents, while 90-pounder Brandon Levesque (3-0, 2 pins) also finished first.
Five BGCGN wrestlers were runners-up in their weight as Cam Bennett (63 pounds, 2-1, 1 pin), Dakota Lane (66, 1-1, 1 pin), David Muite (70, 2-1),Cole Nickerson (68, 2-1, 1 pin) and Jordan Rowlette (55, 2-1, 1 pin) all took second. Matt Gilham placed third at 73 pounds.
In the kindergarten-second grade division, Ryan Jigargian (2-1, 2 pins) was the runner-up in the 40-pound, while Joe Bernard (70) and Noah Morse (48) placed third and fourth, respectively.

First and Second Grade
Ryan Jiggarian 2nd place

Third and Fourth Grade
Brendon Levesque 1st place
Chance Robinson 2nd place
Kevin Melanson 3rd place
Nick Drohan 3rd place

Fifth and Sixth Grade
Tyler Elwood 1st place
Marcel LaPlante 2nd place
Travis Rice 3rd place

Seventh and Eight Grade
John Espinal 1st

The Nashua Middle School Wrestling Program got off to an exciting start last Thursday as Elm Street beat host Fairgrounds 59-52 in what proved to be the first inter-middle school wrestling meet in Nashua.

In front of a packed gym, with the atmosphere looking more like a New England championship tournament, both teams wrestled well, with the outcome not being decided until the last weight.

Trailing 56-52 heading into the heavyweight and final match of the day, Fairgrounds needed a technical fall or pin to win the meet as Ian Parsons faced Elm Streets Colin Quinn.

Following a scoreless first period, Quinn got things going in the second period scoring two points on a reverse of Parsons and then scored three more on a near fall. In the final period, Quinn scored a two-point takedown, making the score 7-0 and securing the Elm Street win.

Fairgrounds came out quickly in the lighter weights, winning eight of the first 10 matches. Mike Silva (70 pounds) and Joe Goveia (85) recorded pins. Matt Glastetter (90) won by major decision, 14-5, while DominicMontalvo (95), Rich Gamez (105) and Gustavi Gamez (110) all won by decision. Matt Dube (65) and Andrew Keefe (80) won by forfeit. Elm Streets only victories at that point were on pins by TJ Duran (75) and Doug Cavanaugh (100).

Elm Street started to close the gap in the 115-pound weight class when Dylan Johnson won by pin, followed by Korey Brown who won a close 4-3 match at 120.

Elm Street dominated the middle and heavier weight classes, winning seven of the last 10 matches. The only Fairgrounds winners were Kelsey Levesque (125), who won by decision, and pins from Mike Warneka (135) and Mike Sliz (145).

The rest of the meet was all Elm Street.

Tyler Humphrey (130), TJ Bell (150) and John Espinol (160) each recorded pins, while Chelsea Gowlik (140) won by technical fall. Erik Powell (180) and Andy Valcourt (200) won by forfeit making the score 56-52 in favor of Elm Street and setting up a dramatic finish to an exciting day with the heavyweights.

The Boys and Girls Club of Greater Nashua wrestling team, accompanied by its counterparts from the Fairgrounds, Elm Street and Pennichuck Middle School squads, hosted a tri-meet on Saturday against the Manchester YMCA Eagles, the Merrimack Youth Assciation and Merrimack Middle School.

Youth wrestlers in grades K-8 wrestled more than 120 matches during the meet.

Posting victories for the Boys Club team were Kyle Ducharme, Adam Garside, Ryan Jigargian, Dakota Lane (pin), Andre Laplante, Marcel Laplante, Brett LeBlanc (pin), Brandon Levesque (pin), David Muite (pin), Evan Manns (WTF), Cole Nickerson (pin), Connor McBride (4-0, 2 pins), Kevin Melanson (pin), Ryan Rice (pin), Liam Quinn (pin), Evan Robinson, Jordan Rowlette, John Sweeney, and Dan Sypek.

Fairgrounds Middle Schools victrious grapplers were Andrew Keefe (pin), Matt Glastetter, Kelsey Levesque Matt Byers (3-0, 2 pins), (pin), Mike Silva (pin), and Zack Isabelle.

Elm Street Middle Schools winner was Matt Terrin.

Winning matches for Pennichuck Middle School were Adam Morse, Cam Engelhardt, Derek Baldwin (pin), Mike Bozek, Joe Dudka, Gus Barosso (pin), Leo Barosso, and Doug McQuaid.

Also competing for the BGCGN team were Chance Robinson, Cam Bennett, Joe Chimelski, Jake Valeri, Noah Morse and Riley Bourque. TJ Duran and Mary MacDonald wrestled for the Elm Street.

The Fairgrounds squad also included Mike Brannen, Connor Humber, Rohan Vaswani, Anthony Monaco, Kyle Anderson and Will Ulrich.

The Pennichuck roster was rounded out by Gordon McQuaid, Brent Christiansen, Spencer Rancourt, John Stevens and Dakota Lustic.

BGCGN elementary team sent 11 wrestlers to the final round of the Big East Youth Wrestling Tournament at Tyngsborough High School. The tournament, in which BGCGN was the only New Hampshire team competing, featured wrestlers from three Regional tournaments held the previous weekend in Bolton, Malden and Wilburham, Mass. Youth wrestlers in grades K-4 competed in four divisions, depending on the quality of their record at the regional events: Gold (for the top regional finishers), followed by Silver, Bronze, and Copper.

Fourth grader Chance Robinson won the Big East Championship, going 4-0 with three pins in his Gold Division 80-pound class. Other Boys Club wrestlers in the third-fourth grade Gold Division were Kevin Melanson (2-1, 1 pin), the runner-up at 60, Cam Bennett, third place at 60, and Ryan Rice, who finished fourth at 63, but won a decision against the only opponent who had beaten him at the Regional tourney. Nashua only K-2 Gold Division wrestler, Evan Robinson, placed fourth at 48.

In Silver Division action, Noah Morse (2-1, 2 pins) placed second in the K-second 48-pound class, as did Ryan Jigargian (2-1) in the K-second 42-pound class, and Jake Valeri (2-1, 1 pin) in the third-fourth grade 55-pound class. Third grader Dakota Lane took the bronze at 66, while fourth graders Brandon Levesque and Nick Drohan took first and second, respectively, in the third-fourth grade 90-pound bracket.

March 2005

The Boys and Girls Club of Greater Nashua had a tough outing on Saturday in Merrimack Valley Boys Club Wrestling League action, losing to both the Derry and the Billerica (Mass.) Boys and Girls Clubs in a tri-meet.

School vacation hit the Nashua squad hard, with several middle school-aged grapplers missing the meet. Derry defeated Nashua 33-24, while Billerica won 18-6.

Leading the way for Nashua was sixth grader Esther Becceril (90 pounds), who defeated two Derry wrestlers to score six points for BGCGN.

Also posting victories against Derry were second graders Kevin Melanson (48) and Ryan Rice (48), third grader Zach Smith (80) and fourth grader Mike Silva (57).

The Boys Club squad’s lone victory against Billerica came from second grader Corey McLaughlin (50).

Other Nashua wrestler competing in regular matches or out-of-weight-class scrimmages were: James Hogan Hines, Joe Bernard, Adam Brownstan, Cole Nickerson, Isiaiah Jones, Alejandro Jones, Jake Valeri, Marcel Laplante, Connor McBride, Spenser Madden, John Powers, Travis Rice, Troy Jenkins, Tyler Ellwood, Gabe Warner, Nik Devoid, Aaron Devoid, Kurt Henderson, Alex Berrigan, Pat Berrigan, Evan Murray, Jeremy Baker, Adam Maroney and Brice Jenkins.