Winchester Wrestlers Continue Winning Tradition

Winchester wrestling coach Larry Tremblay has a saying that summer wrestling produces winter champions.

So despite graduating six of its seven state place-winners from last season, the Sachems' commitment to hard work in the offseason was rewarded. Winchester won its 18th Middlesex League title — winning each league match by at least 25 points — and is now sending eight wrestlers to the state championship meet Friday and Saturday at Marlborough High School.

The Sachems rose steadily in the state rankings, starting at No. 20 and moving up to No. 8.

"We weren't a state championship power like in the past, but everybody gave 100 percent and that's all you can ask as a coach," Tremblay said. "The first week of the season I had a couple of real good kids who were juniors and weren't coming back. I was a little nervous about what we were going to do, I never thought that we would dominate the league like we did."

Tremblay gave credit to his four captains for keeping everyone focused.

"We've had years where we've had a lot more talent but they cared about themselves," Tremblay said. "These guys knew the goal and they kept focused on obtaining it."

Fittingly, the four captains — junior Nick Cashion and seniors Brandon Nowell, Ryan MacDonald and Don Muir — will all be wrestling at states.

Cashion, who now wrestles at 119 pounds, is the only Sachem who placed at states last year — he finished sixth at 112 pounds.

Muir (130 pounds) is going to states for the first time. He had a tough road at sectionals, facing the top-ranked wrestler in the state right off the bat, but finished fourth.

MacDonald won the sectional tournament and now has more than 100 wins in his career, and Newell, who lost in triple overtime in the sectional final is, according to Tremblay, a talented athlete (he's also a captain on the football team) who loves competition and gets up for big matches.

The four captains will be joined at states by four more Sachems — seniors Michael Stern and Vinnie McBeck, junior Stephen Spry and sophomore Quinn Gregory.

Stern, a surprise addition, has qualified in just his first year as a varsity wrestler.

According to Tremblay, Spry is very aggressive, McBeck, a sectional finalist, has an unorthodox style, and Gregory is a two-time sectional finalist and is hoping to become the third Gregory brother to win a state championship.

Last year Tremblay could rely on his "Big 3" -- John Williams, Mike Greco and Gregg Kelley -- who all made the state finals. While the Big 3 are now gone, hard work from their replacements kept Winchester on top.

"We were like, ‘How do you replace that"' Tremblay said. "We got in a lot better shape than the teams we wrestle and we won a lot of matches in the third period."