Taconic Finishes Second at Mountie Invitational
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Zabion Powell, Isiah Williams and Dalton Peck reached the championship round to lead the Taconic wrestling team to a second-place finish at Saturday’s 24th annual Mountie Invitational at Mount Greylock Regional School.
Berkshire County ended up taking two individual titles on the day. Mount Everett’s Zach Lupiani won the 98-pound title with a 13-11 decision over Granby’s’ Christian Perez. Mount Greylock’s Alex Griffis won the 195-pound crown with a 7-5 win over Nathan Moreira of North Providence, R.I.
Taconic took home no championship hardware, but the hard-fought second-place showing satisfied coach Jeremy Tetreault.
“To place in the top three at this tournament, it’s tough,” he said. “You’ve got a lot of teams from Rhode Island, Vermont, New York, all over the place. It’s tough.
“To be in the top three here as a team, that’s pretty good.”
Taconic ended up with 139 points, finishing behind North Providence (152) and just ahead of Chariho, R.I., (136). The host Mounties ended up in fifth place with 121.5 points.
Last year, Taconic finished fourth in an event that was won by Chariho.
On Saturday, Powell and Peck each advanced to the championship match with a pair of pins.
Powell (132 pounds) ended up losing the final to Vergennes, Vt.’s, Ethan Reardon by a score of 8-2. Peck battled to overtime against Northampton’s Luke Harrison before falling, 4-2, at 285 pounds.
Taconic’s third finalist, Williams, won his first two matches by identical 8-1 scores but could not get past La Salle Institute’s Ryan Moore; the New Yorker won, 5-3 to take the title at 152.
Mount Everett put two wrestlers in the finals. In addition to Zach Lupiani, Anthony Lupiani advanced to the title match at 106, where he was pinned in the first minute by South Hadley’s’ Isaiah Cardenales.
Mount Greylock placed two wrestlers in the finals.
Griffis pinned his opponents in the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds. The title match turned when Moreira was penalized for an illegal slam in the third period, allowing Griffis to pull ahead by one point. He later added a point for an escape to provide the final margin of victory.
At 160, as anticipated, the No. 1 and 4 wrestlers in the commonwealth met in the championship match. And Hampshire’s Brandon Weyant and Mount Greylock’s Devin Pelletier did not disappoint the crowd.
Top-seeded Weyant won the title by a razor-thin, 3-2 decision in the battle of unbeaten.
TEAM SCORES
1. North Providence (R.I.), 152.0
2. Taconic, 139.0
3. Chariho (R.I.),136.0
4. La Salle Institute (N.Y.), 133.0
5. Mt. Greylock, 121.5
6. Narragansett (R.I.), 100.5
7. Vergennes (Vt.), 89.0
8. Granby, 82.0
9. South Hadley, 75.0
10. Hampshire Regional, 64.0
11. Mt. Abraham (Vt.) 63.0
12. Fair Haven (Vt.), 52.0
13. Northampton, 47.0
14. Mt. Everett, 46.0
15. Otter Valley (Vt.), 32.0
16. Mill River (Vt.), 30.5
17. Frontier, 29.5
18. Burr & Burton (Vt.), 27.0
19. Rutland (Vt.), 26.0
20. Pioneer Valley, 16.0
20. Southwick. 16.0
22. Berlin (N.Y.),13.0
23. Belchertown, 0.0