Individual weight class championships from Shayne McCann and Dylan Barreiro and additional medal-winning performances from six other wrestlers got the Pinkerton Academy wrestling squad a strong third-place team finish at the Division I Championships at Nashua High School North last Saturday, Feb. 20.
McCann and Barreiro both repeated as D-I champs after performing the feats last winter as well, and heavyweight Deene Hill narrowly missed out on tallying a third individual title for Pinkerton.
Pinkerton’s Shayne McCann, on top, repeated as state champion with his pin over Timberlane’s Cody Lewis at Saturday’s Division 1 Championships.
Other medal performances came from Astros Keygan Nacos, Derek Wilson, Tyler Mackiernan, Kyle Setzer, and Robbie Fahey as the locals advanced eight grapplers to the state Meet of Champions at Nashua North this coming Saturday, Feb. 27.
Where team scores were concerned, Pinkerton finished with a tally of 118.50 points to end up behind only the title-winning Timberlane Regional Owls (220) and distant runner-up Concord (159).
“We pushed eight kids on to next week, so its been a good day,” said PA coach Dave Rhoads after seeing McCann snag his weight class title and before watching Barreiro and Hill go for theirs.
McCann, who claimed the 113-pound division title at the D-I meet last year, snagged the 132-pound crown this year by posting a perfect 3-0 record and defeating Cody Lewis of Timberlane in the title bout.
Barreiro, who had to settle for receiving forfeit after forfeit victory in his 195-pound weight class during the regular season after winning D-I, Meet of Champs’, New England, and national titles last year, has kept himself in great physical shape by working out with a personal trainer three days per week and in good mental condition by always being ready to take to the mat.
Because of his intimidating presence, only five other grapplers registered to compete with Barreiro in the 195 division at this year’s D-I championships, and as a result the PA standout only had to wrestle twice, winning both bouts including the title contest with Concord’s Mitch Comeau, who the Astro standout pinned quickly.
“It’s kind of disappointing not to have more competition on a day like today, but I’ve just tried to always stay prepared because anything can happen on any day,” he said.
In the only other title bout in which an Astro grappler competed, 285-pound wrestler Hill was narrowly bested by Bedford’s Bobby Heald in a 3-1 decision. The PA stalwart finished the day with a 2-1 overall record.
Other top-six, medal-winning efforts were delivered by fourth-place finishers Keygan Nacos (3-2 at 113 pounds) and Derek Wilson (2-2 at 120 pounds), fifth-place finishers Kyle Setzer (3-2 at 160) and Robbie Fahey (4-2 at 220 pounds), and sixth-place competitor Tyler Mackiernan at 126 pounds.
Dylan Barreiro made short work of Concord High’s Mitch Comeau to repeat as state champ during the Division 1 Championships. Photos by Chris Paul
