Wincheser Wrestler, Nick Cashion, earns 118th victory

The following was submitted by Phillip Stern.

Winchester improved its record in the Middlesex League to 8-0 by defeating the Melrose wrestling team on Wednesday, Jan. 18. The Sachems won 10 of the 13 contested weight classes, for a final score of 56-12.

Jordan Darby got things started for Winchester with a major decision over Ryan Stanton. Co-Captains Steve Spry and Dan Fallon scored technical decisions, while the other seven Sachem victories were pins by Quinn Gregory, Shadi Abujoub, Joe Fallon, Ryan Kelley, TJ Boudreau, and Co-Captains Cam Horsey and Nick Cashion. This was Cashion’s 118th win as a varsity wrestler.

Earlier this season, Nick Cashion secured his 100th win at the first event of his senior year, the . Reaching the 100-win milestone, Cashion joins the rarefied company of the best wrestlers in Sachem history.

His freshman year he had 20 wins at 103 pounds.  

Each subsequent year, Cashion increased his weight class and the number of wins: 35 wins at 112 pounds his sophomore year; 42 wins at 119 pounds his junior year; and 21 wins at 132 pounds in his senior year, with almost half the season still to go.

Cashion started wrestling in seventh grade when Coach Lou MacDonald recruited him for the Winchester Youth Wrestling Club.

On the youth team, Cashion won a tournament and competed in the Bay State Games. Before he discovered wrestling, Cashion was a competitive gymnast and also played soccer and baseball. Now he focuses only on wrestling, training year round at summer camps, Doughboy's Wrestling in Lowell and Smitty's Wrestling Barn in Danville, NH.

Cashion has not missed a day of practice in four years on the team, earning the coveted Iron Man Award. Coach Larry Tremblay named him the outstanding wrestler in his grade three consecutive years, and his Sachem teammates rewarded his dedication and leadership by electing him Captain in both his junior and senior years.

Cashion takes pride in having advanced further each year in the post-season tournaments. His freshman year, he placed 5th at the Division 2 North Sectionals. The next year he placed 6th in the Division 2 States. As a junior he placed 6th in the All-State Tournament. His goal in this, his senior year, is to place in the New Englands.

In addition to his outstanding wrestling achievements, Cashion is on the academic honor roll and is a National Merit Commended Student. Cashion also serves on the WHS Student Council and performs music with the WHS Octets and Symphony. He will attend Harvard College after high school. Cashion is the true scholar-athlete and an inspiration to the younger wrestlers on the team.

Some of those younger wrestlers travelled to Brookline High School for the All-Freshman Tournament on Sunday, January 15.  Jordan Darby and Nathan Landau placed 1st in their weights classes and Kevin McGee placed 2nd.  Charlie Cacciola, Garret Ludwig, and Enderson Naar also placed in the tournament.

On Martin Luther King, Jr Day, Winchester blanked Lexington 56-0. Eight of the Sachem wrestlers pinned their opponents: Steve Spry, Drew Piispanen, Shadi Abujoub, Dan Fallon, Ryan Kelley, Tristan Hardy, TJ Boudreau, and Dan McGurl. Nick Cashion and Jordan Darby won by superior decisions. Lexington’s two best wrestlers, Mitchell Ma and Ray Stebbins, were injured and did not wrestle against Winchester.