Leon-Duque, Lupiani Finish Second at State Wrestling Meet

 

WAKEFIELD, Mass. -- After missing out on a state championship by a mere two points on Saturday evening, Monument Mountain senior Mark Leon-Duque was philosophical.

 

"I'll take it for what it is," Leon-Duque said. "It's still an acccomplishment. How many people can say they were second in the state?

 

"Fourteen today," he answered with a laugh.

 

Leon-Duque was one of two Berkshire County wrestlers to make it to the championship finals at the 2015 MIAA Division 3 Championships at Wakefield High School.

 

He and Mount Everett senior Bradley Lupiani both settled for the second spot on the podium.

 

For Leon-Duque, Saturday's final was a rematch against Sabis' Kolby Smith, who Leon-Duque beat, 3-2, last week in the finals of the Western Massachusetts sectional.

 

This time around, Smith took a 2-1 lead with a takedown in the second period. Leon-Duque gave up an escape to start the third period but could not get a takedown of his own. Smith escaped with a 3-1 win in the day's only final featuring two Western Mass wrestlers.

 

"Me and Kolby are so neck and neck, it can go either way," Leon-Duque said. "That time, he just happened to take me down instead of me taking him down."

 

Lupian's final at 132 was not as close.

 

Mount Everett's all-time wins leader had a tough assignment going against Pentucket's Josh Wesolowski, the top seed from the North Sectional who entered with a 32-0 record.

 

Lupiani did well to take Wesolowski the distance -- the only time all weekend Wesolowski had to wrestle for six full minutes.

 

"Even if I wrestled my best match in the finals, it would have been really hard to beat him," Lupiani said. "He's a good wrestler.

 

"I gave it all I had."

 

Wesolowski took a 14-0 lead after two periods, but Lupiani refused to yield the final point and avoided the technical fall.

 

"It just looks better not getting tech falled," he said. "I was just trying to go the whole match."

 

Lupiani and Patrick Fosby, who reached the finals of the consolation bracket at 113, combined to help Mount Everett finish 22nd out of 58 teams at the state meet. The Eagles -- with just two wrestlers in the field -- finished ahead of two teams with eight wrestlers and one with seven.

 

Berkshire County's top finisher in the team competition was Mount Greylock, with six wrestlers, who finished 13th with 51 points. Somerset edged Dedham for the team title by a margin of 100-97.5.

 

Mount Greylock was led by Travis Hilchey and Devin Pelletier, who each finished third in their respective brackets.

 

At 138, Hilchey dropped a 4-0 decision in Saturday morning's semi-finals but came back to take two narrow victories in the wrestlebacks: a 1-0 win over Somerset's Austin Cooley and a 2-0 win over Wayland's Mike Connell.

 

At 152, Pelletier went 5-1 this weekend, winning four times in the consolation bracket, including a 6-4 decision in the consy finals over Georgetown Ipswich's Constantine Galanis, who upended Pelletier in Friday's quarter-finals.

 

Taconic finished 18th with 44.5 points, just ahead of Monument Mountain (44).

 

Taconic's top finisher was Dave Jones, who recorded three pins on his way to the consolation finals, where he lost a 6-3 decision to Lynnfield North Reading's Brandon Troisi.

 

Nick Bailey of Taconic, who like Jones started Saturday in the semi-finals, lost a 6-4 decision there and a 3-2 decision in the consy semi-finals before winning the fifth-place match over LNR's Max Whyman, 6-4.