Westbrook High took second place at Saturday’s Tiger Invitational Wrestling Tournament at Gardiner High School.
The Blue Blazes finished with 149 points, just seven back of Cony, which won with 156. Rounding out the top-five in the 14-team field were Morse (146.5), Erskine Academy (131) and Maine Central Institute (99). The Westbrook B team finished 11th with eight points, which was the best score among the three B teams entered in the tournament.
“We wrestled very well, but came up one match short of winning the team championship,” said Westbrook wrestling coach Ryan Hutchins. “For the second straight tournament, we had nine wrestlers place in the top four, but this time, we had four first-, one second-, one third- and three fourth-place finishes.”
Westbrook junior Harrison Strondak won a 14-4 major decision over Morse’s Spencer Chipman at 152 pounds in the championship round. He was voted the tournament’s outstanding wrestler by the opposing coaches.
Other first-place finishes for the Blazes came from juniors Cole Larrivee and Andrew Drouin and senior Zach Huggard. Larrivee edged Mt. Blue’s Andrew Currier in a 12-11 decision at 135. Drouin won a 10-2 major decision over Erskine’s Alex Wood at 215. Huggard pinned Erskine’s Kevin Lees in 54 seconds at 140.
Sophomore Craig DiBiase placed second for the Blazes at 125. After pinning his first two opponents, he lost a close 8-5 decision in the championship round to Monmouth’s Eric Coulombe. Glenn Emery, also a sophomore, took third at 112, pinning Monmouth’s Patrick McInnis at 4:54 in the consolation round.
Freshman Graham Strondak finished fourth at 130, as did sophomores Troy Fogg (160) and Steve Sawyer (171). Freshman Alex Meserve, wrestling on the Westbrook B team, placed fourth at 103 in his first action of the season.
Freshman Cody Payer (103) and sophomore Marcus Dickson (119) also registered wins on the day for Westbrook.
It was a solid all-around performance for the Blazes, especially when considering the events of the previous couple days.
“We had some adversity, as did most teams at the tournament, after having a shortened practice on Thursday and missing practice Friday because of the ice storm,” Hutchins said. “Several wrestlers went through Friday and the overnight with no power or heat at home, but found ways to get a workout in, maintain their weight and stay mentally prepared to wrestle hard.”
“We also had to make big changes during the week as two starters were out with injuries,” Hutchins continued. “Everyone stepped up – some wrestled above their normal weight class and others were moved from JV to varsity in order to just have a full lineup. It could have been easy for them to make excuses and pack it in, but we responded with strength and I am proud of how they reacted to some tough circumstances to wrestle as well as they did.”
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