January 17, 2008 Issue
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Classified Chestnut Hill Local Don't Miss an Issue, Tell us what you see or Winner of Two |
Powerful GA grapplers make Devils blue
If last Friday’s league opener is any indication, it won’t be easy to break Germantown Academy’s hold on the Inter-Ac wrestling title. Taking 12 of the 14 weight classes, the four-time defending champs chalked up a 62-10 victory at Chestnut Hill Academy against an improved Blue Devils squad that came into the meet with an 8-2 overall record. Each team forfeited one individual match, with the Patriots (5-1) giving a pass to CHA’s Alex Blenheim at 135 lbs., while Chestnut Hill handed back the points to GA’s 103-pound Chris Dinnien. Following the forfeit at 135, the first match actually wrestled was a 140 lb. contest between two freshmen. Corey Goldstein of the Blue Devils avoided a pin, but GA’s John Allenson kept piling up the points until he claimed a 16-0 technical fall midway through the third period. Meeting at 145 were Patriot sophomore Brian McCauley, who often wrestles in a lighter class, and CHA freshman Dan Gallagher, who can compete up at 152, if needed. Gallagher came from behind to tie the bout at 6-6 early in the third period, but McCauley pulled off a reversal and then a pin with 45 seconds remaining. A low-scoring affair at 152 was tied 2-2 at the end of regulation, and eventually GA tenth-grader T.J. Nolan prevailed with an overtime takedown against Blue Devils freshman Matt Rubin. Dan Grabfelder, Germantown’s 160 lb. entry, notched a pin in the opening period against a fellow sophomore, the hosts’ Brendan Plunkett. Patriot junior Mike Harvey, who was first in the state and fourth in the country among independent school wrestlers at 160 lbs. last year, now competes at 171. He led 7-0 after two periods last Friday, but from a standing start in the third CHA senior Henry Gilbert put up two points with a takedown. Harvey still posted a 10-2 major decision, giving the visitors a 24-6 lead in the meet score.
A pair of first-period pins for the Patriots followed. Sophomore Nat Newhall matted CHA junior Andrew McCauley at 189, and senior Ben Finelli brought his 215 lb. bout with Blue Devil sophomore Brendan Spearing to an early conclusion. Since Chestnut Hill was planning to forfeit at 103, GA now would end up with at least 42 points, while at this juncture the Devils still had only six, and could no longer prevent a Germantown victory in the meet. Pats senior Kevin Blalock moved up from his usual 215 lbs. to 285, and met Blue Devils sophomore Will Emery in a contest that often found the wrestlers either out of bounds or stopping to adjust loose headgear. After three regular periods and three overtime segments, the score was tied at 1-1, and finally in the fourth OT the CHA man was penalized a point for locking hands, giving Blalock the victory. After the forfeit at 103, GA freshman Neil Ahern was saved from a pin by the first-period buzzer, but junior Justin Heller went on to claim the only win CHA earned on the mat, collecting a 12-0 major decision to produce a meet score of 45-10. It was GA who piled up the points in the next bout, with Shawn Armato defeating fellow tenth grader Andrew Greenspon by technical fall (15-0) early in the third round. As a 103 lb. freshman last year, the Patriots’ Pat Owens placed first in the state and second in the nation, and in his first league outing as a sophomore at 125, he pinned Chestnut Hill freshman Mike Blake midway through the opening round. The final match of the day lasted just a few seconds longer, as senior 130 Andrew Grabfelder, a former two-time state champion for Germantown, knocked off Nick Varallo, a Blue Devil junior.
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