At this weekend’s Div. 1 state championships, the Shawsheen Tech wrestling team had another memorable performance.
The Rams crowned three champions and had five of their seven competitors advance to this weekend’s all-state tournament in Reading. Shawsheen finished third in the team standings.
Three Billerica residents, Brayton Carbone, James Tildsley and Sid Tildsley, all won their respective weight classes.
Junior Austin Malandain of Billerica took fourth at 220 pounds and junior Caleb Caceres of Billerica was fifth at 145 pounds, also sending both grapplers to the all-state event.
Senior Ben Gooltz of Billerica placed eighth at 152 pounds and freshman Logan Holmes of Tewksbury represented the Rams at 126 pounds and won a match.
James Tildsley continued his torrid season with four more victories and another championship at 132 pounds.
James, the No. 1 seed, edged second-seeded Shaun McLaughlin of Natick by a 3-2 score in the championship match.
On his way to the finals, James pinned Arlington’s Andreas Sandoval in 60 seconds for a first-period victory and pinned Xaverian Brothers’ George McAteer while leading 10-3 in the second round of their quarterfinal battle. In the semifinals, James led Eric Kantorovich by a 7-5 score when he pinned Kantorovich in the second period.
The victories improved James to x-x on the season.
Carbone, the top seed, went 4-0 and won the crown at 120 pounds, just sneaking past second-seeded Brandon Winn of Brockton in the championship match by a 4-3 decision.
Carbone was his usual dominant self on his way to the finals.
In the the first round, he led Newton’s Freya Munshi by a 12-2 score before recording a victory by fall in the second period.
In the quarterfinals, Carbone earned a technical fall win against Nate Garozzo of Sudbury, leading 22-5 when the match was halted.
The semifinals saw Carbone pin Lawrence’s Jaclyn Dehney in the third period while leading by a 17-2 score.
At 138 pounds, Sid Tildsley lived up to his top seed and took home the championship with a 5-3 decision over Jayden D’Ambrosio of Reading in the finals.
Sid won three straight matches by second-period fall on his way to the finals.
Sid was up 9-2 before beating Ben Hankinson of Braintree in Round 1, led Sawyer Ayotte of Charlton by an 8-1 score before pinning him in the quarterfinals and had a 9-2 lead against Omid Sabr of Worcester Tech before winning that match by fall.
Sid has just one loss in two years of high school wrestling. His record is xxxxx.
Malandain went 4-1 at 220 pounds, defeating Angel Heredia of St. John’s Prep by second-period fall in the battle for fourth place.
Malandain started the tournament by pinning Jesse Thompson of Brookline in the second round of their match before falling to Mickey Doyle of Catholic Memorial in the quarterfinals.
In the consolation tournament, Malandain went 3-0, also topping Boston Latin’s Henry Stratman and Chicopee’s Parisse Williams by fall in the first period before facing Heredia in his final contest of the weekend.
Caceres’ 5th-place finish saw him win four of six matches
Caceres won three of his matches by fall before capturing an exciting contest for fifth place by a 5-2 decision over Eliel Sanches of Chicopee.
Gooltz went 2-2 at 152 with a pair of first-period victories and Holmes went 1-2 with a victory by fall. Holmes lost in the first round to Nathan Sayers of Xaverian, who went on to win the tournament.
St. John’s Prep of Danvers won the team title and Natick was second, just 1.5 points ahead of Shawsheen.
