Taconic Takes Mountie Invitational Title
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. – Noah Poirier earned three pins Sunday to take first place at 152 pounds and lead the Taconic wrestling team to a first-place finish at the 29th annual Mountie Invitational.
Mount Greylock’s annual event was moved to Sunday due to Saturday’s snow, and the change of date forced a number of teams to stay home and forced organizers to switch to a round-robin format in each weight class.
Poirier picked up pins against competitors from Northampton, Mont Everett and Monument Mountain. Only the Eagles’ Michael Devoti took him to a second period before succumbing at the three-minute mark.
Taconic amassed five individual titles and 181 team points to finish ahead of runner-up Mount Everett (135 points).
Taconic’s Ethan Nicholls and Joe LaFreniere each went 2-0 with a pair of pins and a bye to win at 195 and 182 pounds, respectively.
At 132, Owen Brennan was 3-0 with two pins and a 9-2 decision over Mohawk Trail’s Logan Moore. At 170, Ben West picked up two pins before beating Mount Greylock’s Aiden MacPherson, 15-6.
All four Berkshire County squads competed at the event and finished in the top four of seven schools.
The runner-up Eagles got a 4-0 day with four first-period pins from Diego Cruz at 106 pounds. Nick Lupiani was 3-0 with three first-period pins – each under a minute – at 120. Omar Cruz was 4-0 with four pins at 136. And the Eagles’ Tyler Candelari needed to wrestle just twice and won both by pin to take first at 126.
Monument Mountain’s Colin Kinne had a busy day at 113 pounds. He went 5-0 with three pins and a pair of major decisions. His Spartan teammate Westley Vansant went 3-0 with three pins to win at 285.
For the host Mounties, Aaron Bush stopped all four of his opponents to go 4-0 and take the individual title at 160 pounds.
Photos from this meet to come.
Team scores: 1. Taconic 181 points; 2. Mount Everett 135; 3. Monument Mountain 105; 4. Mount Greylock 82; 5. Northampton 48; 6. Hampshire 41; 7. Mohawk Trail.