Dews, Poirier Lead Taconic to Second-Place Finish at Western Mass

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- West Dews and Noah Poirier eaarned individual titles on Saturday afternoon to lead the Taconic wrestling team to the best Berkshire County finish at the Western Massachusetts Division 3 Championships.

 

Dews earned three pins, going to the third period before stopping Franklin Tech's Landon Purington in the title bout, to win the 132-pound crown.

 

Poirier, who won the sectional title last year at 165, moved up to 175 on Saturday and won another crown. He also contributed three pins to the team score, ending his day with a second-round stop against Mount Greylock's Jacob Borawski.

 

Berkshire County's squads brought home four titles on Saturday. In adddition to Dews and Poirier, Mount Everett's Diego Cruz and Monument Mountain's Sam St. Peter each ended up atop the podium.

 

Borawski and the Mounties finished fourth as three county teams cracked the top four amoung 14 teams competiting at Mount Greylock Regional School.

 

Monument Mountain placed third. Mount Everett was 11th.

 

Hampden Charter ran away with the team title, finishing more than 60 points ahead of runner-up Taconic.

 

"Obviously, we had hoped to be closer to first place," Taconic coach Derek Powell said. "But our goal was top two coming in, at the very least.

 

"It was tight coming down tho the end. After our semi-final round, we lost a few, and I wasn't sure we'd be able to pull it off. But hats off to the kids. they were able to pull it off when they needed to."

 

Dews and Poirier were the only wrestlers for the Thunder in the first place finals. But Taconic did get day-ending wins from Justin Borawski in the third-place final at 157 as well as three fifth-place finishers: Elijah Shaw (138), Hunter Christman (144) and Riley Brown (215).

 

Powell said it was Poirier's decision to move up a weight class this winter, although he did not add much in the way of bulk between his junior and senior seasons.

 

"Honestly, he could have gone down," Powell said. "He wasn't sucking any weight at all. He's coming in underweight every week.

 

"And that Greylock kid is really, really strong and a really talented young man. Noah's a warrior, what can I say? A lot of experience, a lot of youth experience. He's been wrestling a long time."

 

Powell also described Dews -- like Poirier a Wahconah High student on the Taconic cooperative team -- as a warrior.

 

"He's always looking for the battle," Powell said. "The best, the freshest kid in the room, who ever is going to give him the toughest battle. He's always stepping up and saying, 'Who wants me today?' When that kid's tired, he throws him around and says, 'Who's next?'

 

"He's just an old school wrestling warrior. And after that first loss to [Mount Everett's Max] Manning in the first match of the season, he was so focused -- every match, one step at a time and had this in his mind and was able to pull it off."

 

Monument Mountain's St. Peter continued his undefeated season and ended the meet with a 1-0 win in the 285 pound final. St. Peter got all the scoring he needed with an escape to open the second period and fought off Franklin Tech's Dillon Laffond the rest of the way.

 

In addition to St. Peter, Monument Mountain had two other finalists. Alexander Schindler placed second at 120, and Keegan Dargie was the runner-up at 113.

 

In all, nine Spartans were wrestling for first, third or fifth place in the 14 weight classes at the sectional.

 

Isaac Hartshorn (165) and Shaun Frank (190) each placed third. Kamren Boino (157) ended his day with a win in the fifth-place final. And three Spartans medaled with a sixth-place finish: Lukas Forouhar Graff (150), Sam Teigen (175) and Dakotah Soules (215).

 

Host Mount Greylock also sent three wrestlers into the first-place finals.

 

In addition to Jacob Borawski's second-place finish at 175, the Mounties got silver medal performances from Brett Dupuis at 138 and Logan O'Connell at 215.

 

Jayquan Vazquez was upset in the semi-finals at 190 pounds but came back to earn fifth place with first-minute pin in his last match of the day.

 

Other medalists for Mount Greylock included Hector Rodriguez (113), Brody Smith (132), Jeffrey Daignault (144) and Jake Newberry (285).

 

Mount Everett sent three wrestlers to the championship finals.

 

Cruz ended his day with his fourth first-period win to take gold at 106 pounds. 

 

Connor Lupiani and Ian Lanoue eaach finished second at 126 and 157, respectively. And Manning earned a fourth-place finish at 144 pounds.

 

The Division 3 State Tournament is next Friday and Saturday at Wakefield High School.

 

Photos from this event to come.

 

Team Scores

1. Hampden Charter East, 216 points; 2. Taconic, 153.5; 3. Monument Mountain, 143; 4. Mount Greylock, 138.5; 5. Frontier, 137; 6. Franklin County, 126; 7. Southwick-Tolland, 111.5; 8. Smith Vocational, 101; 9. Hampshire Regional, 96; 10. Duggan, 94.5; 11. Mount Everett, 89.5; 12. Mohawk Trail, 61; t-13. Gateway, 37; t-13. Springfield International Charter, 37.

 

Championship Bouts

106 Diego Cruz, ME, pinned Ber Calhoun, Frontier, 1:53.

113 Rory Norton, Hampden Charter East, pinned Keegan Dargie, MM, 1:35.

120 Mateo Henriques, Smith Voc, def. Alexander Schindler, MM, 5-2.

126 Michaell Harris, Hampden Charter East, pinned Connor Lupiani, ME, 1:46.

132 West Dews, Tac, pnned Landon Purington, Franklin Tech, 4:30.

138 Matthew Small, Smith Voc, pinned Brett Dupuis, MG, 1:05.

144 Adin Clifford, Hampshire, pinned Ezekiel Cherival, Hampden Charter East, 2:21.

150 Broese Antropov, Southwick-Tolland, tech fall Maximus Soto, Duggan, 17-2 (5:39).

157 Jadhiael Vazquez Augusto, Hampden Charter East, pinned Ian Lanoue, ME, :51.

165 Eli Gilbert, Gateway, pinned Luke Johndrow, Hampshire, 4:32.

175 Noah Poirier, Tac, pinned Jacob Borawski, MG, 3:11.

190 Alexander Schreiber, Frontier, pinned Ahmed Elkadri, Hampshire Charter East, 2:58.

215 Jerameel Vazquez, Hampden Charter East, pinned Logan O'Connell, MG, :12.

285 Sam St. Peter, MM, def. Dillon Laffond, Franklin Tech, 1-0.