The young and small Northampton wrestling team sent six wrestlers to the Western Massachusetts Division 1 Tournament.
The Blue Devils had one goal in mind since finishing last in 2018, and backed by fourth-place finishes from senior Noah Brink and sophomore Maddox McPherson, they accomplished that goal.
Northampton finished ninth among 13 teams with 49 points, Saturday at West Springfield High School.
“There’s a little bit of disappointment but we did attain a goal that we started with at the beginning of the season,” Hamp coach Joshua Bialek said. “We wanted to be a top-10 school in Division 1 and we did that.”
Central won the title with 289.5 points. West Springfield was second (233) and Putnam third (202).
“They always have a great attitude,” Bialek said of his team. “They listen, work hard. They understand it’s a tough road for us at the D-1 level. They might be overmatched a good portion of the time, but they are out there trying and they give it there all. Noah had a big win against the No. 2 seed from Putnam. Sometimes you can rise to the occasion.”
Brink moved up a weight class to 145 pounds and navigated his way through six matches to place fourth.
The fourth seed opened with a pin over Owen Comeau, of Minnechaug, in 1 minute, 46 seconds, but a 4-2 loss to Westfield’s Vitaliy Borodin in the quarterfinals dropped him to the consolation round.
Brink recorded two straight pins to reach the consolation semifinals. He dropped Luis Torres, of Chicopee Comp, in 47 seconds, and Josh Reilly, of East Longmeadow, in 1:07.
Brink was in control of second seed Jason Cruz, of Putnam. Brink had five takedowns throughout the match for an 11-5 win.
Brink had a rematch with Borodin in the third-place match. Despite an early takedown by Brink, Borodin earned the 4-2 win.
“He’s my captain of captains,” Bialek said. “He’s been the leader a couple years now.”
McPherson is in his first full season of wrestling after joining late last season. The sophomore had a bye to the quarterfinals where he pinned Eliondres Quinones, of Westfield, in 1:06. McPherson lost 9-0 to Putnam’s Davion Bryant, but he recovered to pin Tim Battle, of Central, in 14 seconds to reach the third-place match. There, Ali Adnan, of West Springfield, earned a 4-1 decision.
McPherson’s “a strong and athletic kid and he understands where he needs to be at all times,” Bialek said.
Brink and McPherson will advance to the two-day state Division 1 tournament, Friday at Methuen High School. Brink will compete for the second time. Last year, he was the first junior in program history to reach the second day of the state meet. McPherson will compete for the first time.
Sophomores Joseph Lellman (113) and William Halt-Witt (106) each placed sixth to help Northampton Saturday. Lellman earned an 11-2 win over Syed Muaz, of East Longmeadow.
Halt-Witt worked his way through a small field and was pinned in 3:13 by Evan Paglia, of West Springfield, in the fifth-place match.
Junior Sebastian Abend (126) and senior Xavier Chartier (220) also competed Saturday. Chartier went 1-2 with a 16-second pin of Isaiah Johnson, of Chicopee Comp. Abend went 1-2 with a pin over Jose Ortiz, of Chicopee, in 5:57.
Belchertown 3, South Hadley 2 — Vaughn Gillen scored twice and Andrew Fijal tallied once as the Orioles (11-1-2) won at Fitzpatrick Ice Arena on Saturday. Cody Lambert had two assists, while Matthew Pacheco and Francis Nigro each had one assist on Gillen’s second goal.
Thenis Tsilibocos and Matt Brunell scored for the Tigers (9-5-2). Ben Watkins, Ryan Tucker and Kaydn Laramee each had one assist.
Ethan Rajpold made 21 saves in the win. Anthony Cigal stopped 31 in defeat.
Greenfield 2, Assabet Valley 0 — Sean O’Sullivan scored with 1:11 left and Kyle Barnes added an empty-net goal for the Green Wave (12-2-2), Saturday at Collins-Moylan Arena in Greenfield.
Bryan Baumann and Jacob Bryant each had one assist and Riley Drew made 24 saves in the shutout.
Longmeadow 4, Marblehead 2 — Northampton High School senior Brigitte Goeler-Slough had a goal and an assist on senior night for the Lancers, Saturday at the Olympia Ice Center in West Springfield.
Goeler-Slough leads the Lancers in goals (15) and assists (eight).
Boys basketball
Hampshire Regional 79, Gateway Regional 26 — Justin Forest had 19 points on five 3-pointers, while Sean Gaskins added 15 points on three 3s as the Raiders (3-12) ran away in Westhampton on Saturday.
Nick Pellegrini and Dominik Lewinski each chipped in 12 points.
Evan Cortis had 11 points and Jayden Santiago-Lopez nine for the Gators (1-15).
Hampshire Regional 79,
Gateway Regional 26
Gateway (1-15)
Thompson 1-1-3, Santiago-Lopez 2-4-9, Hyjek 0-0-0, Buckman 0-0-0, Lefreniere 1-0-2, Cortis 4-3-11, Krassler 0-0-0, Sakaske 0-0-0, Shedd 0-1-1, Iacovelli 0-0-0. Totals: 8-9-26
Hampshire (3-12)
Kraus 0-0-0, Zarniecki 3-1-7, R. Gaskins 0-0-0, Lewinski 6-0-12, Sarna-McCarthy 2-0-4, Dunlap 1-0-2, Pellegrini 6-0-12, Forest 7-0-19, S. Gaskins 5-2-15, Boyle 1-0-2, Rodriguez 1-0-2, Greve 1-1-3, O’Connell 0-1-1. Totals: 33-5-79
|
Gateway |
10 |
2 |
8 |
6 |
—26 |
|
Hampshire |
20 |
26 |
18 |
15 |
—79 |
3-Pointers—Gateway 1 (Santiago-Lopez) Hampshire 8 (Forest 5, S. Gaskins 3)