Monument's Pollard, Flaherty Win Titles at Berkshire Holiday Tourney
GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. -- The host Monument Mountain wrestling team led the Berkshire County contingent at the Berkshire Holiday Tournament, taking two individual titles and a third-place finish among 17 squads.
Caleb Pollard and Sean Flaherty finished the day with pins in the title matches at 113 pounds and 220 pounds, respectively.
Pollard, the top seed in his weight class, stopped Hampshire Regional’s Nathaniel Picard in 36 seconds to claim the title. After receiving a bye into the semi-finals, Pollard needed to win just once to reach the final, and he earned a 32-second pin over Anthony Doria of Ichabod Crane (N.Y.) to do just that.
Flaherty needed two wins to reach the final and make his No. 1 seed stand up. He pinned opponents from Cohoes, N.Y., and Putnam to reach the title bout against Jason Gaylord of Taconic Hills (N.Y). Flaherty stopped Gaylord at the 1:28 mark to take the crown.
The wins helped Monument amass 112 points, well behind team champion Putnam, which finished with 220.5, and just back of Ichabod Crane (118).
Mount Everett placed ninth with 58 points. Taconic, which sent its top wrestlers east to compete in Lowell on Thursday, placed 14th with 41 points. Mount Greylock finished with 31 points, ahead of Mohawk Trail (24 points).
In addition to wins from Pollard and Flaherty, Monument Mountain saw 145-pounder Sam Cormier reach the tournament final and Ely Cormier win the consolation bracket at 106.
Top-seeded Sam Cormier won his first three matches by pins to reach the final, where he was edged, 4-3, by Hoosick Falls, N.Y.’s, Logan Powers.
Ely Cormier dropped into the consolation bracket after a 10-5 loss to top-seeded Zeke Ahmadzai of Cohoes in the quarters. But Cormier came back with a pin over Hampshire’s Alex Willard in the consolation semis and earned third place with another second round pin, this time over South Hadley’s Cayden Henriquez.
Mount Everett’s Zack Lupiani also ended his day with a third-place match victory.
Lupiani, at 120, lost his first match of the day to a wrestler from Putnam but came back with three pins in the consies, ending by stopping Taconic’s Ryan Scott in 23 seconds.
The Eagles also got runner-up finishes from Nick Lupiani at 99 pounds and Anthony Lupiani at 126.
The highlight of the day for Mount Greylock came at 170, where Liam Feeley advanced to the tournament final by pinning Putnam’s Xavier Cruz in the semis. Second-seeded Feeley lost to top seed Joshua Schwartz of Northwestern (Conn.) High in the championship.