MIAA Wrestling: Hampshire’s Robert Zononi, Holyoke’s Steven Santiago earn All-State berths

Hampshire Regional’s Luke Johndrow competes to a second place finish against Gateway’s Eli Gilbert in the 165-pound final earlier this month during the Western Mass. Division 3 Wrestling championships at Mount Greylock Regional School in Williamstown. STAFF PHOTO/DAN LITTLE
Published: 02-17-2024 6:11 PM Modified: 02-17-2024 6:19 PM |
A busy weekend on the mats came to a close for the local contingent on Saturday, as the MIAA Division 3 Wrestling Championships in Wakefield saw just one Hampshire County grappler earn a top-six finish.
Tewksbury won the Division 3 team title with 151.5 points, followed by Ashland (124.5 points) and host Wakefield (120).
Wyatt Finch, who also went 2-1 at 120 pounds on Friday, opened the second day of the tournament with a tightly-contested 6-5 defeat to Weston’s Jisup Shin.
Finch was able to get a pin against Smith Vocational’s Mateo Henriques in the seventh place match to take seventh overall.
It was a similar story for Cabrera at 285 pounds. The Redhawk went 2-1 on Friday, dropped his opening match on Saturday to Ashland’s Matt Terry via a second period pin and closed out the day with a pin over Mount Greylock’s Jake Newberry to place seventh.
Hampshire’s Robert Zononi finished sixth at 113 pounds to secure the area’s lone spot at All-States next weekend. The MIAA All-State Championship is scheduled for Friday and Saturday at Salem High School.
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After a 2-1 opening day, he earned a win via forfeit to open his Saturday, then pinned Holliston’s Bavly Mikhail in just 38 seconds to get into the fifth-place match. Raj Jetty of Foxborough notched a 20-4 technical fall win there and Zononi settled for sixth.
Teammate Luke Johndrow finished seventh at 165 pounds, earning a wild 11-10 decision over Gateway’s Eli Gilbert in the seventh-place match. It was a rematch of the Western Mass. Division 3 final at 165, won by Gilbert, but this time Johndrow notched a late reversal with 27 seconds remaining in the third period to rally for a one-point win.
Smith Vocational’s Matthew Small took seventh at 138, while Henriques was eighth at 120. Small captured an 11-4 decision over Triton’s Brian Quam in the seventh-place match.
Granby’s Junior Ramsey finished eighth at 190, dropping a pair of matches on Saturday after winning twice on Friday.
At the Division 2 Championships at Algonquin Regional High School in Northborough, Holyoke’s Steven Santiago earned a podium finish with a sixth-place showing at 113 pounds. He’ll join Zononi at next weekend’s All-State meet.
Santiago beat Woburn’s Alexander Orellana via a 6-4 decision to open his Saturday, but dropped two matches, including a fifth-place match loss to Whittier’s Aiden Fogarty.
Granby’s Eliza Speek was the runner-up at the 138-pound weight class, helping the Rams to a 12th-place team finish at the MIAA Girls Wrestling Championships on Saturday in Wakefield.
Ashland won the team title with 61 points, followed by South Shore (42 points), Franklin Tech (40) and Bristol-Plymouth (40).
Speek earned a pin over Ashland’s Carly Larson but fell to Nora Quitt for a 1-1 outing that had her take second in the weight class.
Quinn Speek went 1-2 at 126 and Theseus Doherty competed at 132 for Granby.
Frontier’s Jocelyn Antes went an impressive 3-1 at 120 pounds, finishing third in the state. Antes pinned Mount Everett’s Yaritza Cruz-Bravo in the third round of the third-place match to help her Redhawks finish 16th as a team.
South Hadley’s Graicyn Drew went 1-2 at 120 pounds to represent the Tigers in Wakefield.