Winchester Places Fourth at Holiday Wrestling Tournament

The following was submitted by Winchester parent, Phillip Stern.

On Dec. 28 and 29, the took fourth place at the Lowell Holiday Tournament against quality wrestlers representing 61 teams from five states.

The tournament was held at the Tsongas Arena at UMass Lowell with continuous wrestling on eight mats and live results posted on a JumboTron and online at kapwrestling.net. The top five teams were from four different states: Mt. Anthony from Vermont, Timberlane from New Hampshire, Dracut and Winchester from Massachusetts, and Warwick from Rhode Island. Connecticut was represented by Granby Memorial which finished in last place.

Winchester had an excellent first day, with 10 of its 14 wrestlers advancing to the second day of competition.   

Jordan Darby, Nick Stern, Nick Cashion, Cam Horsey and Ryan Kelley all qualified for the Championship Quarterfinals by winning multiple matches without a loss on Wednesday.  

Wrestling their way back through the consolation rounds with a chance to finish as high as third place were Quinn Gregory, Steve Spry, Tristan Hardy, TJ Boudreau and Dan McGurl.

By the end of the day, Winchester was the surprise top-scoring team, prompting the PA announcer to quip: “America’s Coach, Larry Tremblay, just called on the Bat Phone to tell you that Winchester is in 1st place.”

Timberlane and Mt. Anthony, each of whom brought several top-seeded wrestlers to Lowell, were expected to garner the most team points from the start, so Coach Tremblay and his Winchester team went home from the first day of the tournament justifiably proud of their excellent showing.

The second day’s wrestling brought the Sachems back down from the first day’s high, as six of Winchester’s wrestlers were knocked out of the tournament in the quarterfinal rounds.

Despite the disappointing second day losses, Winchester had four wrestlers on the podium Thursday night in Lowell. 

Nick Cashion reached the championship semifinals and finished in fifth place by winning his last consolation match. Ryan Kelley took sixth in his weight class, which is quite an achievement for a freshman, especially in an upper weight class. Steve Spry and Cam Horsey looked great winning their final consolation matches for seventh place medals.

The team finished the tournament in fourth place overall behind the two regional powerhouse programs, Timberlane and Mt. Anthony, and just a few points behind Dracut who had quite a few wrestlers in the championship finals, earning them a lot of team points. Winchester finished above 57 other teams including Lawrence and Natick, a great performance by the team in a tournament stacked with state and New England champions and very strong local teams.