Taconic's Burke Reaches All-State Semi-Final

DANVERS, Mass. -- Taconic's Dylan Burke earned two pins on Friday to wrestle his way into the semi-finals at the all-state championships at St. John's Prep.

 

Burke started his day by stopping Haverhill's Joe Santaro in the first minute of their 182-pound first round match.

 

Burke then pinned Dracut's Allyn Frnech at 3 minutes, 6 seconds of their quarter-final bout.

 

Burke will meet Brookline's Abraham Spurlock in the all-state semi-finals.

 

Taconic's Zabion Powell dropped a 10-3 decision to Springfield Central's Cqari Bacote in the quarter-finals at 145. Like Burke, Powell had a bye into the round of 16, where he pinned Natick's Jake Adelmann at 1:09.

 

Powell bounced back in the consolation bracket to beat Jalen Rogers of Sabis, 7-1. Two weeks ago, Powell earned a 6-1 win over Rogers in the Western Mass Division 3 Championships final.

 

Powell is set to face Nashoba's Lucian Perla in the consolation semis.

 

Taconic's Shawn O'Shea (195) was edged, 11-9 in his opener, falling to Xaverian's Tanner Alexander. In the consys, O'Shea was pinned at 3:23 by Haverhill's Ryan McCartney.

 

At 138, Zach Mathes dropped his first match at 138 but came back to pin Norwood's Kevin White in the consolation bracket before losing, 14-8, to Minnechaug's Sean Monteiro.

 

Mike LaFreniere at 132 also split a pair of matches in the consys. He lost to Longmeadow's David Barrett in the championship bracket and pinned Plymouth South's Lucas Coppola in the consolation bracket at 1:35. Then New Bedford's Ethan Mederios pinned LaFreniere at 5:27.

 

The county's other competitor at the all-state meet was Mount Everett's Zack Lupiani, who went 1-2 on Friday, falling 9-7, to Haverhill's Ron Fuller to drop into the consys.

 

He stayed alive with a pin at 4:57 against Norton's Alex Turcotte. But North Attleborough's Ethan Smith stopped Lupiani in the first period.