SALEM — While they’re certainly meaningful, and it’s always great to get a win, every dual meet throughout the regular season is in preparation for the marquee end of the year events.
Whether it’s the NEC/CAL Championships, States, All-States or even New England’s, local wrestlers are building up towards something bigger. And it’s those dual and quad meet bouts that give them the necessary experience to ultimately perform at those levels.
That reality was on full display in Wednesday evening’s competitive NEC clash between Salem and visiting Gloucester. The Witches snared an early lead with some terrific performances in the lighter weights, but Gloucester took control later on with a number of dominant wins in the heavier classes to walk away with a convincing 49-24 victory.
Wins and losses aside, however, it was yet another building block for both postseason hopeful squads.
“It feels great, and it was nice to have the heavy guys come in because I was a little nervous there for a minute, especially in a conference situation,” said Gloucester head coach Matt Swanson. “But now we’re moving forward to this weekend, a big quad at Watertown, which is finally a D3 squad. We’ve been wrestling D1 and D2 schools the last month, so we’re gearing up for D3 Sectionals coming up and got the conference championship coming up too, and that’s the way to do it.”
Salem coach Cliff Exilhomme echoed those sentiments after the competitive conference bout.
“We do all this for the first two or three months of the season just to get to states and see what we can do,” he said. “Everything we do is for two solid days at Salem High School (which will be hosting Division 2 states this year).”
While Gloucester and Salem will see each other again at the NEC/CAL meet, they won’t hit the mat alongside one another come postseason as they compete in different divisions. All that meant was there were more bragging rights on the line on Wednesday.
Gloucester started off hot, getting a third round pin from Drew Rodolosi against Henry Skolski at 120 pounds to open up an early lead. That paved the way for the match of the day, an all-out battle between two of the state’s best at 126.
While Gloucester’s Aiden DeCoste — who has strung together another excellent campaign thus far — hung in tough, it was Salem’s Kevin Spoon who secured a narrow win by decision. The two all-star talents will likely be ranked 1-2 at the looming NEC/CAL meet at Triton Regional, and will each be a threat to win states in their respective divisions as well.
“Spoon has had a phenomenal year and he had a great match against this young man today,” said Exilhomme, who noted that Spoon’s background in jujutsu and karate has helped him thrive in the sport over the last three years.
“He likes to stay a lot on his heels, he plays defense and he was being patient with (DeCoste),” continued the coach. “He knew that if he took his shots he was going to turn him and throw him, so he waited until he had his moment and then you saw that single leg and he can finish it.”
“DeCoste has been on a roll, and that matchup (with Spoon) is probably going to be the finals matchup for the conference title,” added Swanson. “Now he wrestled him so now we know what we need to work on. We’re expecting big things from DeCoste.”
At 132 pounds Salem’s Connor Buckley recorded a swift pin in Round 1 against Nathan Gonzalez to increase the Witches’ lead. The hosts stayed hot at 138, with Justice Bower earning a fairly dominant decision over freshman Cam Russell before Gloucester climbed back into things with an impressive first round pin from Joe Aiello at 144.
Salem’s Miguel Arcila then picked up a hard fought decision over Gloucester’s Anthony Murawski at 150; Gloucester standout Joe Allen picked up four points with a triumph over Angel Vega at 157; and Gloucester’s JJ Figueroa-Mercado won a hard fought decision over Dante Jacobs at 165.
At that point, Gloucester had seized a narrow 25-24 lead overall, but would cruise to the finish line from there with four impressive pins to close out the match. That included a first round pin from Quadir Divens at 175, a second round pin from Zach Hashley at 190, a first round pin from Max Thomas at 215, and one more pin by heavyweight Chris Laine 26 seconds into Round 1 to seal the deal.
“I’ll tell you what, Quadir Divens, things got a little slow for him, he’s a senior, a captain, and these are the big nights right here,” said Swanson. “So him stringing out a win like that, that was great.
“Zach Hashley same thing,” added the coach. “And Chris Laine is now ranked No. 1 at heavyweight in D3, he’s undefeated … so we’re on the right track here.”
For Salem, Exilhomme highlighted the performances of Bower, Vasquez, Arcila and Buckley, but admitted his squad still has their work cut out for them heading down the stretch.
“We’re making key mistakes that’s causing us issues,” he said. “Things that we talk about in the practice room every single day. I just told my guys all year long that I’m not worried about the wins and losses because I understand what we are as a team, but I’m looking for us to develop our experience and our wrestling knowledge on the mat.”
Sports Editor Nick Giannino may be contacted at 978-675-2712 or ngiannino@northofboston.com.