Photo by Jodie Andruskevich
Merrimack's Anson Dewar (R) has a lock on Timberlane's Anthony Rousseau at the Meet of Champions on Saturday.

NASHUA – Nashua-area schools will be sending over a half a dozen wrestlers to next week’s New England High School Wrestling Championships in Methuen, Mass., following Sunday’s New Hampshire Meet of Champions at Nashua South.

Three local schools finishing among the top ten teams in the tournament, led by Bishop Guertin’s 111.5 points. That put them fourth out of 35 schools with wrestlers in the tournament, 124.5 point behind Timberlane’s top finish.

Bishop Guertin topped that list with 111.5 overall points, good enough for fourth place behind first-place Timberlane (237 points.) Among the Cardinals six top-six finishers, Anthony Fernandez (106 pounds), Nick Connerty (285 pounds), Connor MacDonald (126 pounds) and Zach Rioux (145 pounds) heading to Methuen.

Rioux defeated Timberlane’s Adam Marquis by a 7-0 decision to win the title in his weight class, remaining undefeated this season, almost winning by pin.

For Bishop Guertin Head Coach Paul Rousseau, Rioux highlighted an excellent day that exemplified lessons learned throughout the year.

“We ask these kids to practice hard and step up and most of all don’t back down to the competition,” he said. “Don’t back down to the Concords and the Timberlanes and they didn’t, they keep fighting. They’re putting BG’s name on the map a little bit and people are respecting us because we’re wrestling tough. I’m very proud of these kids.”

Rioux was one of two area champs on the day. The other was Alvirne High junior Kyle Gora, who pushed to victory at 170 pounds.

Gora, for the second straight week, earned a technical fall in the title match, this one coming over Plymouth’s Cole Johnston.

Merrimack came close to equaling Bishop Guertin’s figure, putting five wrestlers in the top six to earn 70 points, good for a sixth-place team finish overall.

Anson Dewar (152 pounds) and Griffin Ostrom (220 pounds) narrowly missed meet titles in their divisions.

Dewar fell by pin to Plymouth’s Joseph Cleary and Ostrom falling to Salem’s Beau Dillion in an 17-8 decision.

Dewar and Cleary met earlier this season, with Dewar winning then with a technical pin. But the stage at the Meet of Champions can bring surprises.

“(Cleary) was ready for Anson today. It was a very back and forth match and sometimes when you get to the highest level here it can be a coin flip,” said Merrimack Head Coach Bryan Dine. “Sometimes it all relies on one mistake and sometimes it can just turn one way or another.”

Dine believes that Ostrom and Dewar can win some matches next week in Methuen, but just as the Meet of Champions pit wrestlers from around New Hampshire that might not normally face each other, the New England tournament ratchets that diversity of opponents up a notch as the best from six states converge.

“It’s tough because you don’t have the scouting reports on a lot of kids. You know names here and there, but that’s good and bad,” said Dine. “There’s a lot of unknowns. All you know is that you’re going to wrestle a good wrestler and you have to focus on what you do and how you prepare.”

Nashua South’s Colby Spencer finished third in the 113 lb. division, giving him a ticket to next week’s tournament.

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