BY MATT STOUT
Quality, not quantity, is sometimes all you need in a tournament. If Goffstown had both, its wrestling team may have been looking at quite a finish at Concord’s Capital City Wrestling Classic on Saturday, Jan. 27.
Despite carrying only eight wrestlers, the Grizzlies compiled 92 points to finish seventh in a 16-team field Goffstown coach Todd Lavallee said made up the toughest one-day tournament that anyone wrestles in New Hampshire.
Senior 140-pounder Phil Charte placed second in his division, losing only to Pinkerton Academy’s Ian Beck in the finals, while sophomore Tom Foote also earned runner-up honors, his lone loss coming to Concord junior and Foote’s second cousin, Marshall Gleason.
Chris Ives and Andrew Yost continued to surpass expectations as well, Lavallee said. Both earned fourth-place finishes and consolation finals appearances, with Ives compiling a 4-2 record at 152 pounds and Yost going 2-2 at 130.
Mike Przekaza, at 160 pounds, and Tyler Clites, at 135, also placed in the top six to help propel Goffstown, which was missing regular 125-pounder Ryan Hardy, who was taking a college entrance exam, and 103-pounder Ray Lazot, who had a family obligation. Both had good chances at placing, Lavallee said.
“We definitely wanted to get all that we could out of each one of us,” said Lavallee, whose team was scheduled to host Manchester West on Wednesday, Jan. 31. “We wanted to stick to our basics, wrestle aggressive and focused and let the outcome dictate itself. Our strategy was to come out aggressive and keep that up for the full six minutes, and I think throughout the whole team that day we did, not just in our wins, but in our losses, too.”
In reaching the finals, Charte recorded one pin and two decisions before falling in a major decision to Beck, who upset No. 1 seed Alex Buessing of Concord to get there.
Foote, meanwhile, disposed of opponents from Hollis-Brookline, the top team in Division II, West, and Mount Anthony, Vermont’s defending 18-time state champion and this tournament’s champion, via two pins and a major decision.
He took Gleason, who he trains with in the offseason, to overtime before being pinned.
“It was just like wrestling someone from your own team,” Gleason said. “I knew what he was going to do, and he knew what I was going to do.”
Mount Anthony took the team title, its 16th straight, with 285.50 points, edging out Concord, which has never won its own tournament. Rhode Island’s Bishop Hendricken and Cumberland finished third and fifth, respectively, sandwiching Hollis-Brookline in the top five. Weston, Mass., took sixth.