Taconic Wrestlers Finish Perfect Season in County

PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- The Taconic wrestling team won the last four contested matches on Wednesday to wrap up an undefeated season in Berkshire County and send the home crowd home happy on Senior Night.

 

It was the last hurrah in the Taconic gym for standouts Nick Bailey, Austin Hougtaling, Mason Papirio and Dalton Peck.

 

Or was it?

 

"It is my last dual match against Monument -- my last dual match ever as a Brave wrestler," Houghtaling said. "It feels better to go out with a final win here.

 

"Hopefully, I can bring it back here with states and do the same."

 

After this weekend's state duals in Wayland and the Feb. 12-13 Western Mass meet in Southwick, Houghtaling and his teammates hope to be right back at home for the Division 3 state tournament.

 

But for a few moments at least on Wednesday, the county champions got to celebrate a crown that they actually won before the evening started. Monument Mountain (3-3 league) came in looking at a second-place finish no matter what happened; the Spartans ended up tying for second with Mount Greylock, which beat Mount Everett, 60-12 on Wednesday.

 

Even though Taconic (6-0) knew it was walking out with a title, it had plenty of incentive going into the home finale.

 

"Winning the county hasn't been done in a while, but it wasn't going to be a win of the county until we finished undefeated," Houghtaling said. "It feels great to go undefeated. That trophy actually means something now."

 

Monument proved a game challenger, jumping out to a 10-0 lead with technical falls by Max Buffoni and Eli Jones at 106 pounds and 113, respectively.

 

Taconic got on the board with a second-period pin by Sam Miller at 120 to make it 10-6.

 

After a 10-2 major decision by Monument's Dorian Page and a forfeit win for Taconic at 132 made it a two-point match, Papirio pinned his man at 3 minutes, 49 seconds to give Taconic a lead it never lost.

 

Nate Cormier's 9-4 decision at 145 made it 18-17. And the teams traded pins to keep it close for a while: Isiah Williams (152) with a 35-second fall at 152 for Taconic and Haedon Gerrow (160) with a second-period pin for Monument to make it 24-23.

 

But Taconic took control starting at 170, when Tanner Hastings earned a technical fall at the buzzer to give his team a six-point lead.

 

That started a run of four straight wins for Taconic to close out the match. Houghtaling followed with a 4-2 match that was not decided until his takedown with seconds remaining against Steve Wool.

 

"The kid's good," Houghtaling said. "I've faced him before. He's very strong. But the way I wrestle, I just took it to where I need my moment and then just score from there."

 

Tyler Klose followed with a 5-3 win at 195 to make it 35-23. And Austin Peck won, 4-2, at 220. Taconic picked up a forfeit win at 285 to finish the scoring.

 

Papirio said it was nice to get the win, but he was already looking ahead.

 

"We got the county championship, and this is just adding onto our record," he said. "It's making us look better. We're going to the state duals this weekend, and it's just going to help us get seeded there.

 

"We've got Western Mass coming up, and we're looking to win that as a team, too."