Spartan wrestlers head to New England championships
Feb. 27,
2013 |
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East Longmeadow wrestlers (both in red) Jake Strohman, above, and Conner Humphries, below, are the first pair of Western Massachusetts sectional champions for the Spartans in nearly 30 years. Reminder Publications submitted photos
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By Chris Maza
chrism@thereminder.com
EAST LONGMEADOW – It's been a long time since the East Longmeadow High School wrestling team has had two Western Massachusetts sectional champions.
Almost 30 years, in fact.
But this season, senior Jake Strohman and sophomore Conner Humphries did just that and more.
Strohman, the team's only senior, took first at the Western Massachusetts sectional meet in the 139 – pound weight class, placed second overall in the divisional state meet, and finished fifth at the all – state championships.
"Jake had a really great senior season," East Longmeadow coach Steve Graham said. "He was really close to winning states, but he had a 5 – 4 loss in the finals against the top – ranked wrestler. He really battled it out, but just couldn't pull it out."
Humphries, wrestling at 182 pounds, took the Western Massachusetts title before finishing fifth at both the divisional state and all – state meets.
"Conner had a very good season overall," Graham said. "At Western Mass., he was seeded second in a tough weight class and did a very good job."
With their strong efforts, both wrestlers qualified for the New England Wrestling Tournament, which is slated to take place on March 1 and 2 at the Providence Career and Technical Academy in Providence, R.I.
Without some help from the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association, Strohman and Humphries may have never had this opportunity.
"Because of the snowstorm, Western Massachusetts championships were pushed back a week. The date for New Englands couldn't be changed and the only way for kids in Massachusetts to qualify was to move states and all – states," Graham said.
The state meet was moved to Feb. 19 and 20 and the all – state meet took place Feb. 23 and 24.
"The problem is the kids have to make weight, so this is a very tough schedule for them," Graham said. "The kids wrestled 11 or 12 times last week. That's tough."
Strohman and Humphries represent what on the whole has been an encouraging season for the East Longmeadow wrestling program.
In addition to the two stars heading to the New England tournament, 170 – pounder Andy Frappier took third the sectional meet while Jake and Ben Pormore too fourth and sixth place at 120 and 132 pounds, respectively.
What makes Graham even more confident is the number of quality wrestlers returning.
"This was definitely a good season," he said. "If you look at this team, we only had one senior and that was Jake. We had a lot of good freshmen and sophomores and a number of juniors. Jake will be a big loss, but I think we are in pretty good shape.
"I think we've got some good building blocks for next year and beyond," he added.
He said he also expected junior Brandon Logan to take on a big leadership role as a captain next year.
Graham said that a strong dual meet record that featured only two league losses and some tough meets against out – of – state opponents has helped his younger athletes gain valuable experience.
"We wrestled some tough teams in Connecticut," he said. "It was a great experience for our kids and a lot of the younger guys got some exposure to some good competition."
Graham pointed to Jeremy Venn as one of his freshmen who took great strides during the season.
Sophomore Giacomo Cabrera, who wrestled at 145 pounds this year, is a promising candidate to take over Stohman's role at 139 pounds.
"He probably would have been at 139 if not for Strohman, so he spent the year wrestling up a weight class. He's looking pretty tough," Graham said.
A wealth of young talent at 132 pounds includes Chase Sawyer, Connor Heath, Damien Batista and Sal Pellegrino, who just missed out on the medal round at the sectional championships.
Brendan D'Arco "made at lot of progress" in the 160 – pound weight class and Nick Calvanese is one that is expected to "break out from the pack" at 126 pounds, according to Graham.
Freshman Jon Lessard at 195 pounds and sophomore Gavin Butler at 220 pounds will also take on larger roles.
Sal Silvestri, Tom Chapdelain, Sam Tortnov, Adam Maurer, Mason Reid and Chris 9Garrelli , Andy DiFiore and Chris Walker were all hard workers with potential, Graham added.
In addition to the existing members of this year's team, Graham said he expects a plethora of young talent from the town's youth program.
"It's really important to have that good feeder system and we're fortunate to have such a good one," he said.
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