Post by atlantaal on Dec 31, 2021 17:25:08 GMT -5
The granddaddy of New England high school wrestling tournaments, the George Bossi Lowell Tournament, took place Dec. 27-28 despite circumstances that led to a number of other holiday tournaments in the area getting cancelled. In view of the ongoing concerns there was a good attendance of top NE teams, 73 in all including Hope, LaSalle and East Greenwich from Rhode Island. There were five RI placewinners, and not surprisingly most were former State placers; that's the level of competition you have to get through to place at Lowell. Top performers were Ryan Conlan of LaSalle, Maurice Cooper of Hope and Michael Jarrell of EG, all 4th at 106, 145 and 220, respectively. LaSalle's Hayk Grigoiran was 6th at 182 and Hope's Isael Perez was 8th at 160. Conlan and Jarrell were the only Rhody wrestlers to make the semi-finals, each losing to the eventual champion. Perez went in unseeded, was pinned by eventual 160 champ and 3rd at Super 32 Michael Babola of Xaverian MA, and so had to win five straight matches in the Consolations to finish 8th. The team title went to Massachusetts' St. Johns Prep, which barely edged longtime NH and New England powerhouse Timberlane 205-203. Fairfield Warde, ranked second to Danbury in Connecticut was third, followed by another prominent Massachusetts team Central Catholic, with Natick MA 5th and Simsbury CT 6th. Hope had the best RI team finish at 10th. Other noteworthy Rhode Island performances were by State champ and NE 3rd Nick Torres of Hope who was seeded 6th at 132 but finished 3-2; ; freshman Brian Montanez and soph Edmir Monteiro of Hope went 4-2 at 126 and 138, and Joseph Hiraldo and Frankie Burgos of Hope went 3-2 at 113 and 195. Freshman Michael DiOrio-Mantonti went 2-2 at 195 lbs. for LaSalle, an impressive showing for a young wrestler in an upper weight class.
There were three former NE champs in the competition from last April's Spartan Combat New England tournament, all lightweights, two who won with one second. There was another NE finalists who finished second at Lowell, as well as numerous NE placewinners who won or placed. As usual the lightweights looked stacked, with a goodly number of Mass. wrestlers and some from Conn. who will pose a challenge to the the superb lightweights that Rhode Island is producing. There were a lot of good veteran middleweights as well with some very impressive, such as John Mairano of Simsburty, CT who pinned NE champ Mark Botello of Higham, MA at 145, Bobola at 160 and William Ebert of Fairfield Warde, CT at 170. The upperweights were mostly newer names with some of the heavy hitters such as Joshua Cordio of Nashoba, MA not in attendance. Still, we'll see many of these same names in the New England brackets in March.
Link to brackets and results from Floarena:
arena.flowrestling.org/event/57de5954-de3e-4eed-ba01-ea1abd725fa4
There were three former NE champs in the competition from last April's Spartan Combat New England tournament, all lightweights, two who won with one second. There was another NE finalists who finished second at Lowell, as well as numerous NE placewinners who won or placed. As usual the lightweights looked stacked, with a goodly number of Mass. wrestlers and some from Conn. who will pose a challenge to the the superb lightweights that Rhode Island is producing. There were a lot of good veteran middleweights as well with some very impressive, such as John Mairano of Simsburty, CT who pinned NE champ Mark Botello of Higham, MA at 145, Bobola at 160 and William Ebert of Fairfield Warde, CT at 170. The upperweights were mostly newer names with some of the heavy hitters such as Joshua Cordio of Nashoba, MA not in attendance. Still, we'll see many of these same names in the New England brackets in March.
Link to brackets and results from Floarena:
arena.flowrestling.org/event/57de5954-de3e-4eed-ba01-ea1abd725fa4