Taconic Goes 3-0 at Berkshire County Duals
GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. -- Two years removed from its last Western Massachusetts Championship, the Taconic wrestling team is riding high after dominating the Berkshire County season with a run it capped Saturday at the Berkshire County Duals.
Taconic went 3-0 at the event, beating each of its Berkshire rivals and finishing the day with a 45-24 win over host Monument Mountain.
Next week, Taconic looks to be among the favorites when it hosts the Western Mass Division 3 championships, an event it won in 2016.
“I think a lot of it has to do with our youth program,” Taconic coach Jeremy Tetreault said. “We used to pull kids out of the hallways and say, ‘OK, try wrestling.’ Now, we’re getting them at a young age.
“I can count eight eighth-graders we have coming up next year who are going to youth tournaments. They already know what they’re doing. … We still have a few kids who are coming in and starting from scratch. But for the most part, we can start off at a higher level.”
On Saturday, Taconic showed why it has been a level above the rest of the county this winter. It started the day with a 60-15 win over Mount Everett. Then it beat Mount Greylock, 65-12, before moving on to beat the Spartans, who also went 2-0 in the morning rounds.
Taconic’s Zabion Powell and Shawn O’Shea registered pins in the battle of the county’s top two teams.
The former, at 152 pounds, gave his team an 18-15 win that it never relinquished.
Monument won the bout’s first contested matches at 132 and 145.
Sam Cormier (132) pinned London Martin at the 3 minute, 52 second mark. And after Monument won by forfeit to tie the match, 12-12, Brady Whalen (145) earned a 4-1 decision over Taconic’s Gabe Carrington.
Then came Powell’s second-period pin to give Taconic the lead.
The teams traded forfeits until Tanner Hastings blanked Dylan Tinker at 195 pounds to give Taconic a 27-21 lead.
Next up was O’Shea, who pinned Sean Flaherty at the 2:17 mark to make it a 33-21 lead with three matches to go. Taconic took a pair of forfeits, and Monument’s Caleb Pollard defeated Deven Pekosz, 4-0, to round out the match.
Tetreault said it has not been hard to keep his wrestlers focused on improving throughout the winter.
“The big thing for Tanner and Zabion at the beginning of the year was they wanted to hit their 100th [win], and they got that out of the way,” he said. “We’ve got Tyler Hiestand [220] looking for his 100th, too.
“I split up the schedule so we go up against a lot of D1 teams at tournaments. We go over to New York, to the Saratoga Tournament, which was a big eye-opener. I don’t like to have a season where we have undefeated wrestlers. Nobody’s undefeated; there’s always somebody who can beat you.”
Mount Everett and Mount Greylock split their final match of the day in a 30-30 tie.
The Eagles won three of the bout’s four contested matches.
Pat Fosby got the bout started with a pin late in the second period against Jack Rosier at 120. Jeremiah Tomescek stopped A.J. Durocher, in the first period at 152, and Jake Martin pinned Jack McNair at 170.
Mount Greylock’s Dom Green pinned Mount Everett’s Hunter DeGrenier at 3:58 of their 145-pound match.