St. Paul's 69 - 12 Wilbraham & Monson

Choate 51 - 30 St. Paul's

St. Paul's 72 - 12 Pomfret

The St. Paul's Wrestling team had a long drive this past weekend to a quad meet at Choate Rosemary Hall in Connecticut. The meet started with St. Paul's facing Wilbraham & Monson Academy in the first dual. Starting at 132lbs, Ciaran O'Reilly had the first match and quickly set the tone for the rest of the dual with an immediate takedown and quick finish to the match. The next two weights were losses for St. Paul's – although a bright spot for Third Former Aidan Cho as he stepped up to fill a needed role on the varsity team. He fought hard in his 144lb match, even if the end was not the initial win he was hoping for! From there, St. Paul's did not drop a single match, with James Bohm starting the winning streak with a hard fought and gritty match against a solid wrestler. James edged out his opponent and tallied a win after nearly 2 whole periods of tough wrestling. Charles Lussier scored a quick win for the Big Red while Tristan Ho had another tough fought victory at 165 lbs. After a forfeit at 175lbs,  Rhys Henrikson took the mat and won a decision victory against a skilled opponent, just missing out on a major decision victory by 1 point. Cooper Lussier and Hans Wiederkehr rounded out the dual with quick pins in under 30 seconds each. 106lbs to 126lbs consisted of 4 forfeit wins for St. Paul's resulting in a 69 – 12 victory for Big Red in the first dual of the day! 
 
The second dual was against Choate Rosemary Hall, and this competition started at 138 lbs. Unfortunately, St. Paul's suffered 3 consecutive losses to strong competition from very experienced Choate wrestlers. Charlie Lussier, Tristan Ho, and Odin Delorey all won via forfeit to notch some points for St. Paul's. Rhys Henrikson had a tough battle with a strong Choate wrestler, a back-and-forth competition resulting in a loss by only 5 points. Cooper Lussier scored a quick takedown in his 215lb bout and quickly chained that into a pinning combination, scoring the first match won points for St. Paul's. At 285lbs, Hans Wiederkehr had a difficult match against a strong opponent – his heavyweight match almost went the distance, however Hans was successful in reversing his opponent and securing a pinning combination, adding to the hard-won points from Cooper. Regrettably, this marked the las points that St. Paul's would earn in this match with the following 5 matches (106 – 132lbs) ending in loss by pin. This dual finished with a score of 51 - 30 with St. Paul's suffering a loss at the hands of the home team Choate.
 
Shaking off the loss to Choate, St. Paul's refocused and brought new intensity to face the last dual of the day against Pomfret! The dual started anticlimactically with Aiden Cho winning via forfeit to gain an initial 6 points for St. Paul's. Following that win, Pomfret won a quick match at 150 lbs to equalize the score back to 6-6. Charles Lussier took this in stride and proceeded to put on a clinic of takedowns and imaginative riding attacks to secure a pinning combination against a strong 157lb wrestler. Tristan Ho lost the following match at 165lb after some initial success hand fighting and looking for takedowns, but ultimately being caught in a tight headlock throw. However, from here on St. Paul's did not drop a point with consecutive wins, starting with Odin Delorey who immediately took control of his match with an initial takedown and aggressive riding. The Pomfret wrestler fought hard, but Odin eventually secured a head and arm pinning position. Rhys Henrikson similarly took control of his match through aggressive takedowns and offense, resulting in a win via pin. Hans Wiederkehr ended the upper weights by way of win by forfeit. Maddie Morse and Ines Nam similarly took wins via forfeit to bring 12 more points to St. Paul's. Caitlin O'Reilly was the next wrestler to compete at 120lbs, and she immediately pushed the offense, using canny feints to set up for a fireman's carry takedown and eventual pin. Noah Lu similarly pushed the offense in his match which led to a takedown and then immediate half nelson pin. Ciaran O'Reilly won via forfeit and Addison Ramsey finished off the dual with a win via pin within the first period of her match. The final score of the dual was 72 – 12 with St, Paul's winning decisively!