Above: Massabesic’s Logan Martin controls an opponent during the Jarvis Wildcat Memorial Tournament in Athens, Pennsylvania on Saturday. Below: Massabesic’s Leo Amabile looks for a pin during Saturday’s Jarvis Wildcat Memorial Tournament in Athens, Pennsylvania.

Above: Massabesic’s Logan Martin controls an opponent during the Jarvis Wildcat Memorial Tournament in Athens, Pennsylvania on Saturday. Below: Massabesic’s Leo Amabile looks for a pin during Saturday’s Jarvis Wildcat Memorial Tournament in Athens, Pennsylvania.

ATHENS, PA — The Massabesic wrestling team traveled seven hours to Athens, Pennsylvania to wrestle in an individual tournament over the weekend and came back home with a fifth-place finish out of 13 teams.

The tournament, which also had several individual wrestlers competing, featured several Pennsylvania and New York state place-winners and a prep school national champion.

“This was a very nice and hard tournament here with Pennsylvania and New York kids … it was awesome,” said Massabesic coach Rick DeRosier.

Leading the way for the Mustangs was Trevor Walton, who picked up a second place finish at the tournament. The defending state champ rolled through his first four matches with four pins, but would drop a 5-0 decision to PA powerhouse Chestnut Ridge’s Connor Buttry in the finals.

The Mustangs also got a pair of third-place finishes from Noah Schneider at 182 pounds and Zac McGrath at 170 pounds.

Massabesic had three wrestlers come home in fourth place with Leo Amabile at 106 pounds, Kevin Nguyen at 113 and Logan Martin at 152.

DeRosier was impressed with the tournament, which had powerhouse teams from both Pennsylvania and New York in attendance.

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“It was awesome to see this much atmosphere and how they are going at it,” said DeRosier, who said his team got to see a different style of wrestling. “I mean it’s non-stop, they attack, attack, attack and (there is a) difference in the PA towards Maine style.”

One big difference is the emphasis on riding in Pennsylvania, according to DeRosier.

“A lot more legs down here and a lot tighter as far as tight rides … I mean you have the tilts that are really tight with,” said DeRosier, who was hoping his kids would learn from the tournament.

“A lot of them, their eyes were opened up just watching some of the wrestling. They couldn’t believe some of the moves,” said DeRosier. “Justin Goodwin, who wrestled (Saturday) at 120, said ‘everyone today was just in attack mode, they are go, go, go and I couldn’t get anything.’ He had a hard day, but he came down here and wrestled his heart out.”

Despite the losses for some of his top wrestlers – like Amabile, Martin and Walton – DeRosier believes wrestling in a tough tournament like this will help his team.

“It’s going to help them down the road tremendously. Coming here and getting a little schooling in wrestling is going to help them big time later on,” said DeRosier.

Chestnut Ridge, which took second at last year’s PA duals tournament, captured the team title with 227 points. Athens, which hosted the event, was second with 166, followed by New York powers Falconer and Johnson City in third and fourth, and Massabesic came home with 110 points in fifth place.

NOTE: For more on Saturday’s tournament, check out Tuesday’s Journal Tribune.

—Sports Editor Pat McDonald can be reached at pmcdonald@journaltribune.com or at 282-1535 ext. 322. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.


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