Four from County Take First at Taconic Invitational

PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- Dylan Burke and the Taconic wrestling team have a lot of action still ahead of them.

 

The last two years, his postseason runs have included trips to the state Division 3 final. Last year, he helped the team win a state title.

 

But this week included a couple of big and potentially sentimental moments for the senior.

 

On Thursday, Taconic topped county rival Monument Mountain on Senior Night. Saturday, the team hosted its final home invitational tournament.

 

"It means a lot," Burke said of moments like that. "Every tournament we go to, every match I wrestle, it's my last time doing it at that place. So it means a lot, and it means a lot to win.

 

"It's cool that we're doing it in our home town. We get to sleep in. It just feels a lot better."

 

Well-rested by short-handed Taconic placed third in 18-team field behind first-place finishes by Burke at 182 pounds and 132-pounder Mike LaFreneiere.

 

Monument Mountain tied for fifth place as Caden O'Rourke at 195 and Logan Mead at 220 each placed first.

 

First place in the team standings went to Wayland, which finished fourth behind Taconic at last winter's Division 3 state tournament. D1 Minnechaug placed second in Saturday's event.

 

Taconic coach Jeremy Tetreault said he was happy with the efforts he saw from his wrestlers.

 

"We were missing two guys who possibly could have been finalists, and we still end up taking third, best of the D3 West teams here," Tetreault said. "But we wanted to raise the level of competition a little bit from last year.

 

"We brought Wayland in. Last year, I think we had 12 teams and it ended up going pretty quick. This year, we had 20 teams. It's a longer day, but the guys liked it."

 

Taconic's run to a state title last year helped raise the program's profile and enabled Tetrault to attract a squad like Wayland.

 

"It grew pretty good for one year," he said of the tournament. "I think it helps that we went out to states and did good last year, so other teams want to come over and see us now.

 

"We go to [Wayland's] tournament. We've been going there for about five years now, so they made the trip out."

 

Even without a couple of potential high seeds in action, Taconic placed three wrestlers in the finals on Saturday.

 

Ryan Scott at 145 pounds earned a technical fall in the quarter-finals and a pin in the semi-finals to get to title bout, where he fell to Hampden Charter's Shanauri Buckhannon in the first period.

 

LaFreniere won three matches by fall to get to the finals, needing 1 minute, 16 seconds or less to dispatch each of his opponents. In the final, he went the distance against Franklin Tech's Josh Brunelle, winning, 7-0.

 

Burke, like Scott, had a bye in the first round. He then picked up a pair of first-period pins before getting pushed in the semi-finals and finals.

 

He took a 7-2 decision from Pathfinder's Markus Lissaint to reach the final, and he edged Hampshire Regional's Michael Baldwin, 3-2, to claim the crown.

 

"We battled earlier in the year, and we battled today," Burke said of Baldwin. "I had a couple of close calls, and so did he, and it just ended up in my favor."

 

Burke was named the Most Outstanding Wrestler for the heavyweights. LaFreniere was the lightweight MOW.

 

Mount Everett placed 12th on Saturday behind the performances of Zack and Nick Lupiani. Nick earned a second-period pin to win the third-place match at 106 pounds. Zack won two matches by fall to reach the final at 126, where he was edged by Minnechaug's Cam Ice, 6-5.

 

Mount Greylock did not have a wrestler place on Saturday. But Liam Feeley earned a first-round pin at 182 pounds before taking a medical forfeit out of the consolation bracket. At 132, the Mounties' Quinn Whaley picked up a pair of pins in the wrestlebacks.

 

Monument Mountain sent three wrestlers to the finals and had a third, Ely Cormier (132) win a third-place match.

 

Colin Kinne reached the finals of the 99-pound exhibition division, pinning two opponents to get there. In the title bout, he fell to Hampden Charter's Musa Tamuradze, 16-7.

 

O'Rourke used three pins to advance to the final at 195. He then won one of the finals' most exciting matches, getting a late second-period takedown to edge Wayland's C.J. Brown, 6-5.

 

Mead did not need much time at all on the mat, stopping all four of his opponents Saturday in less than a minute.

 

In the final, he threw Wayland's Luke Stitham to the mat and earned a pin 39 seconds in.

 

Significantly, both Monument Mountain's titles came in championship matches against wrestlers from first-place Wayland.

 

"It's really showing how much we've grown as a team," Mead said. "We came here with a team of seven, and two of us came out first, one of us took second. It's really a good showing for our team and shows how well our coach has adapted to a small team and gotten us all to perform our best."