Led by two skilled seniors, the Londonderry High School wrestling squad finished a solid sixth out of 13 competing teams at the Division I Wrestling Championship Meet at LHS last Saturday, Feb. 17.
Craig Santos went a perfect 3-0 and vanquished Cam McClure of Alvirne in the 145-pound weight class title bout to snare the individual D-I championship. His fellow 12th grader Alex Boucher attempted to climb to the pinnacle of the D-I mountain in his 195-pound class, but had to settle for runner-up honors after being bested by Salem’s Beau Dillon in the finals in their division.
Santos and Boucher were the top two-point getters for the Lancers, who tallied a team score of 112 to finish behind the perennial state champs from Timberlane of Plaistow (254.5), second place Concord (192.5), Salem (145), Pinkerton (142), and Nashua South (117.5), but ahead of some seven other contingents.
Santos went 3-0 with his first place win and scored 24 team points.
In his Quarterfinal bout Santos won by fall over Matt Cotoia of Exeter at 1:19. His Semifinal match was also won by fall over Ben Widmann of Concord at 1:26.
It took a short overtime period to beat Cam Mcclure of Alvirne for the Title Match (12-10).
Londonderry had 10 of its grapplers compete in the meet, with eight of them advancing to this coming Saturday’s state Meet of Champions at Nashua High School South.
Along with the aforementioned Santos and Boucher, the home-standing Lancers had junior Vincent Del Signore, junior Ben Psaledas, and sophomore Michael Watts snare fourth places at 160, 182, and 170 pounds respectively. Sophomore Brandon Drake bagged fifth place at 126 pounds, and freshman Johnny McKinnon and junior Taylor Dyer claimed sixth place finishes at 126 and 220 pounds respectively. Freshmen Aiden O’Loughlin and Dylan Barnes also competed at the major event for the first time but didn’t advance.
“We brought 10 and eight are going to the MOC’s,” said LHS coach Jason Cucolo. “Obviously we wanted all 10 to go. It’s never enough unless you get everybody qualified. You set the bar high, because it has to be.”
Santos’ title-round defeat McClure was a truly heated one, with the two grapplers ending the regulation three-period span with the score tied at 10-10. The Lancer then bagged two quick points in the overtime and was declared the victor.
“He came at me aggressively and I was able to reverse his move and score the (winning) points,” said Santos of his climactic success.
Cucolo said, “It shouldn’t have gone to overtime, but this win shows his character and the toughness he has. I’ve definitely seen a lot of growth from him in the last year.”
Runner-up finisher Boucher battled his title-round opponent – Salem sophomore Dillon – hard all the way and fell by a small 11-8 margin. Dillon had gone into period three with a 9-6 lead and Boucher refused to give much ground, but he lost in the end. The Londonderry veteran went 2-1 overall on the day.
Boucher won by fall over Raul Martinez of Pinkerton 9-7 in his first match and his Semifinal bout he won by fall over Noah Giffard of Concord 17-1.
In his finals bout to decide who would finish fifth and who’d settle for sixth at 126 pounds, sophomore Drake pinned Andrew Tate of Nashua North to finish in the higher spot.