By Chris Paul
The Londonderry High School varsity Wrestling team hosted the NH Interscholastic Athletic Association’s Division I State Championship on Saturday and had a number of the members finish in the top six.
Since 2001, Londonderry has been the only team to unseat the Timberlane powerhouse has taken 20 of the 21 titles in that time, with LHS getting the 2015 title.
On Saturday, the Owl’s captured their seventh consecutive title, scoring 265-points for first, Salem High School was a distant second with 184.5 points and Nashua North was third with 144-points.
The Lancer team had a score of 68.5 and finished in ninth with five of their wrestlers finishing in the top six.
Junior Nicolas D’Alessandro was the Lancers best finisher in the competition. D’Alessandro made it into the championship bout after two strong wins in the 126-pound weight class. In his first bout, he won by virtue of a technical fall, outscoring a Concord opponent 18-2. His second win of the day came with a 10-8 decision victory over John Fabrizio of Timberlane. His only loss was a 6-2 decision in the championship bout.
Lancer freshman David Pento had a good afternoon, with just one loss in his second match of the day.
Pento took third in the 132-weight class with a final round win over Mike Folio of Pinkerton. He also had victories over Keene and Timberlane wrestlers.
Londonderry sophomore Patrick O’Connor finished in third place with a strong 6-0 decision over Nashua North’s Finn Mulany at 152-pounds.
O’Connor had four wins and a loss in the competition; two of the wins were by fall.
Senior Ricardo Perez (160 lbs.) and Freshman Nikki Stylianos (106 lbs.) had 6th place finishes in the tournament.
All five of those Londonderry wrestlers will be back on the Londonderry High School mats on Saturday, Feb. 26, when they will compete at the Meet of Champions (MOC) at the Gymnasium.