Two Pelham wrestlers won individual state championships, and the team finished seventh at the Division II wrestling tournament, hosted by Bedford High School on Saturday, Feb. 21. Josh Medeiros made his first state tournament a memorable one, as the freshman won the 103-pound weight class, while junior Mike Perruccio took home a state championship at 125 pounds.

The two Python victors join teammate Mark Riddinger at the Meet of Champions on Saturday, Feb. 28, after Riddinger took fourth place in the 152-pound category. Head coach Bob Riddinger said his wrestlers and other D-II competitors should prove difficult foes at the MOC.

“The Division-I teams have a lot of upperclassmen, so it’ll be tough, but we will give it our best shot and see if we can come away with some placings,” said Riddinger. “I think you’ll see a lot of Division-II kids making some noise at the Meet of Champions.”

Riddinger said he had hoped his team could have placed higher at the state meet, but the Pythons were hit with a flu bug that affected several wrestlers.

“I think we made some good strides. We had a fairly young team with a lot of the starters being first-year starters,” said Riddinger. “They got some really good experience. Even though we’ll be losing five seniors, the younger guys will be stepping it up, and we hope to see a pretty good influx from the middle school level. We’ll stay on that rebuilding course.”

The coach carried high expectations for Perruccio into the event, and the now two-time champ – he won the 103-pound D-II championship as a freshman – didn’t disappoint. Riddinger was also pleasantly surprised by his freshman state champion.

“With Medeiros, I had him one year in the middle school, and I knew he was athletic. He stepped it up on Saturday,” Riddinger said. “He was a completely different wrestler from his semifinals match to his final. He showed what he was capable of. That’s what we thought we could expect out of him. It was a matter of making him aware.”

Often when his wrestlers were on the mat, Riddinger forgot how young many of them were. He looks forward to molding the team in the upcoming years.

“They have time to hone their skills,” he said. “They’ll be able to take their abilities up to the next level. We expect some good things.”