The George Bossi Lowell Holiday Tournament is a gold standard of high school wrestling events. If you can hang in Lowell, that’s a pretty accurate barometer in which to judge your program.
Xaverian took its talents to Lowell and the tournament ended, the Hawks turned in a respectable 13th place performance. Among the teams they finished ahead of were Franklin, Wayland, Methuen. Minnechaug and Beverly.
“We really had some great performances there,” said Tom Trovato, the head coach at Xaverian for the past 26 years. “We got a lot of early pins and kept the momentum going. We wound up having three guys place there (Nathan Sayers, George McAteer and Mateus Dalton) and that was great.
“We always go to Lowell for a reason. It’s the toughest tournament in New England and the kids love going there because it is so competitive.”
Xaverian has been one of the more consistent tournament-type teams in the early part of the season. In addition to their showing at Lowell, the Hawks won the Bob Gay Whitman-Hanson Invitational, took second at Weymouth, third at Milford and fifth at Ashland.
“We’ve had a pretty good winter,” Trovato said. “We’ve really got a group of kids which is always something you want, it’s a really cohesive group of kids. You come into our practices and you see seniors working with the younger kids and that’s not something you always see in a practice room.”
While Xaverian has been fortunate enough to have 12 different wrestlers place in tournament events, the top-rated Hawks are Nathan Sayers (126 pounds) and George McAteer (132). Each has won four tournaments, placed in the top three at Lowell and are ranked among the top five wrestlers in New England at their respective weight classes.
“They are committed to the sport, they worked very hard at it,” Trovato said. “I think they are fortunate in that they get to work out against each other in practice every day and that makes them better.”
In addition to McAteer and Sayers, Dalton has placed in all five tournaments and won the Bob Gay Whitman-Hanson Invitational at 190 pounds. The other Hawks who have made contributions include James Goedde (175), Luke Dwyer (113), Jonathan Lyder (138), Joseph Karvelis (165), Matthew Karvelis (120), Connor Follett (215), Zachary Fondo (144), Timothy Mohan (150) and Marcel Karam (157).
“I’ve realized a long time ago that my goal is to help the kids as much as possible,” Trovato said. “I want them to understand that it is more than just wins and losses. I want them to develop into good people, people who understand what’s right and what’s wrong.”
The latest dual meet rankings have Shawsheen atop the leaderboard followed by Milford, St. John’s Prep, Central Catholic, Bridgewater-Raynham, Natick, West Springfield, Chelmsford, New Bedford and Arlington.
According to Max Schwartz’s highly popular Schwartz Report, five Bay State wrestlers are ranked atop his New England leaderboard as of the start of the year. The Fab Five include Franklin freshman John Woodall (106 pounds), Billerica junior Peter Rincan (120), Andover junior Yandel Morales (132), Shawsheen junior James Tildsley (150) and Chelmsford senior Thomas Brown (285). The Villanova-bound Brown recently earned Herald All-Scholastic football honors.
It was a big night in the Patriot League as rising contender Scituate defeated Plymouth South for the first time ever, 42-31. Earning victories for the Sailors (10-3) were Thayne Hershiser, Manny Lopes, Grayson Loeffel, AJ Reimels, Brady Standridge, Liam Holden, Xander Pizer and Wyllys Ames.
Elsewhere, St. John’s Prep standout Braedon Goes became the latest wrestler in school history to crack the 150-win mark last week during a dual meet with Wellesley.