BGCGN wins second straight MVC title

The Boys and Girls Club of Greater Nashua wrestling travel team finished the regular season at 7-0, capturing its second straight Merrimack Valley Conference regular season championship with dual meet wins over Billerica, Mass. (68-9) and Dracut, Mass. (69-16) at Nashua High School North.

The following weekend in North Andover, Mass., the Nashua squad capped off its season with a second straight MVC Tournament championship.

Nashua had finalists in almost two-thirds of the 16 weight classes, placing 10 wrestlers in the finals. Four BGCGN wrestlers were crowned individual conference champions: Kevin Melanson (77 pounds) and Connor McBride (130) of Pennichcuck Middle School, and the Nashua Catholic duo of Marcel Laplante (92) and Evan Manns (170).

Manns had been bumped up to 170 from his actual-weight of 155.

The six conference runners up from Nashua were Keegan Mills (BGCGN, 72), Ryan Rice (Pennichuck, 87), Kyle Ducharme (Elm St., 102), John Sweeney (Elm St., 107), Connor Sullivan (Nashua Catholic, 117) and Joe Chimelski (Nashua Catholic, 140), whose only MVC loss all season was a tough one-point loss in the tourney finals.

Also competing for Nashua were Ryan Jigargian (BGCGN, 67), Chris Olsen (Fairgrounds, 107), Cameron Bennett (Elm St., 82), Jake Valeri (Fairgrounds, 97), Zack Seppi (Fairgrounds, 122) and Wilson Pellott (Elm St., 155). Bennett, Valeri and Pellott also scored team points for Nashua by placing in the top four of their respective weight classes.

Second at Patriot Duals

The day before the MVC tourney, an expanded BGCGN team – including its junior varsity – competed in the Patriot Duals in North Andover, Mass.

After going undefeated in the round-robin phase of the tourney with wins over Plymouth (Mass.), North Attleboro (Mass.), North Andover (Mass.) and the Salem Boys and GIrls Club, Nashua advanced to the finals. The locals came up on the short end of a 40-35 decision against the Mountain View Middle School of Rumford, Maine.

In addition to Jigargian, Melanson, Bennett, Rice, Laplante, Valeri, Ducharme, Sweeney, Kennedy, Sullivan, Seppi, McBride, Chimelski, Pellott, and Manns, the BGCGN team included Colin O’Connor, Remee Perez, Cole Nickerson, David Muite, Derel Lansil, Chris Olsen, Peter Daniels, Alkin Dato and Kevin Smith.

Open tournaments

n Ten members of the BGCGN youth (K-fifth grade) squad traveled to Peterborough to compete in the Con-Val Cougar Classic. Nate Zalzal and Colin O’Connor placed first at 75 and 55 pounds, respectively, while Owen Duda was third at 68. Brody Mills, Jaiden Dupont, Jason Messier, Garrett Hillard, Jeremy Bridge, Trevor Forburg, Are Kennedy and Nick McPherson also made the trip.

n Second graders Zalzal and Keegan Mills both placed first, winning gold medals at the Deegan Memorial Tourney in Natick, Mass.

n Colin O’Connor placed first in the 55-pound weight class in the third-fourth grade division of the Woburn (Mass.) Youth Wrestling Tourney.

n Keegan Mills (74) and Patrick Melanson (45) placed first in their respective K-second grade divisions at the Exeter Blue Hawk Classic. Owen Duda placed third at 74, which also included teammate Nate Zalzal. Ryan Jigargian was the runner up in the 55-pound class in the third-fourth grade division.

n Members of the Fairgrounds wrestling team competed in the Rundlett Invitational Tournament in Concord last Saturday. Nick Dube was champion in his weight class.

Placing second was Jon Torres. Patrick Sullivan, Brendan Murphy, Jacob Patenaude and Brendan Kendall each placed third. Dakota Lane and Cole Humber came in fourth.

Other FMS wrestlers who competed were: Patrick Roy, Noah Telerski, Jasmin Petrosino, Shawn Speidel, Amanda Myers, Jeremy Bishop, Jon Flynn, Josh Perry and Mick Vrouhas.

n Elm Street wrestlers Chris Dube and Josh Norman also competed in the Rundlett Tournament. Both wrestlers placed second in their weight class.