Winchester Wrestling Struggles over the Weekend

The struggled to meet expectations over the weekend at the annual Sons of Italy wrestling tournament at Wilmington.

Despite being ranked as the sixth best high school wrestling team in the state prior to the beginning of the season by MassWrestling.com thanks in large part to a 110-3 record over the past three years as well as three meet victories already this year in dual-squad and tri-squad events against Burlington, New Bedford, Lowell, Pioneer Valley and Milford, the Sachems were unable to top any of the 14 weight classes contested during this year's tournament.

The result marks a drop-off from last year's Sons of Italy performance, where Winchester was able to claim victory in the 140 and 145 pound divisions while sending five other wrestlers to the finals.

For Winchester head coach Larry Trembley, Saturday's 12-team meet may have been a wakeup call for the overall aggressiveness of his squad.

"We're not up with the Shaweens and North Andovers as far as toughness goes, I know we're rebuilding a bit, and I know we lost a couple of seniors, but they're no excuses for being out-toughed," said Trembley. "And we were out-toughed in some of those late matches and out-toughed in some of those earlier matches. I felt like we were prepared going in there, but I guess we need to go back to the drawing board."

Trembley also credited the disappointing performance to a lack of conditioning and inexperience among his wrestlers in addition to their mental complacency.

"I took it for granted that they knew some stuff that they don't, and we have a few freshmen popping in and out of the varsity lineup," said Trembley.  "And then we've got some kids that didn't do any offseason wrestling, and they didn't train, and it's showing its effects."

Even though Winchester did not meet Trembley's expectations, the Sachems were almost able to win two weight divisions again this year, but couldn't pull out either as 112-pounder Quinn Gregory was able to tie his match with only 20 seconds left in regulation, but lost 7-5 in overtime to Jonathan Stearns of Shawsheen Regional. And 119-pound wrestler Nick Cashion also lost an overtime match to Shawsheen's Devonn Pratt by a score of 7-4.

Cashion's match drew particular controversy as Trembley ran onto the mat immediately to dispute a call that turned a deadlock between the two wrestlers into a match-winning, three-point near-fall for Pratt.

"I was hoping to get what they call a stalemate situation, and I thought it was long enough, but you know what? Good wrestling overcomes bad officiating," said Trembley. "If we took it to (Pratt), we wouldn't have had to worry about that call."

Despite this weekend's overall performance, Trembley believes that both this year, as well as previous performances in Sons of Italy tournaments may not have been truly indicative of his team's true mettle.

"We've won at this team tournament a bunch of times, but really, we haven't wrestled well here overall," said Trembley. "Our best usually doesn't start kicking in until early-to-mid January, so hopefully we're going to get better."

Elsewhere in the tournament, Winchester was able to earn third place in the 135, 135, 145, and 171 pound categories while grabbing fourth place finishes in the 152 and 160 pound divisions.