Big day for New Hampshire wrestlers at Milford/Souhegan Tournament

MILFORD – Surprise was the word of the day at the Milford/Souhegan Wrestling Tournament on Saturday at Milford High School.

Stunning comebacks, quality championship matches and unexpected finalists led to a big day for New Hampshire wrestlers at the nine-team tournament that also featured teams from Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Team scores were not immediately available following the tournament.

Nashua North had three wrestlers take home first places, as Cole Nickerson (106 pounds), Cam Bennett (132) and John Sweeney (170) won their respective final matches. Wayne Nolette (145) also reached the final and finished second for the Titans.

Getting four wrestlers into the finals was a big step for a young North team, according to Bennett.

“We have a couple more in the finals, and that’s good,” he said. “It’s very important. It’s a rebuilding year, so you’ve got to get kids into it.”

Milford’s Travis Hughes also finish first at 285, pulling out the finals win over Dean Tech’s Philip Fernandez 2-1 in double overtime. Hughes scored the winning point on an escape with 12 seconds left in the second OT.

“I feel like it was a great day, for me and the whole team,” he said. “I knew I was going into a quality guy like Fernandez. I’ve wrestled him before and he beat me in the offseason, so it was a little bit of redemption match for me. To wrestle a quality guy like that, and come out on top in OT, it means a lot.”

The Spartans had two other wrestlers reach the finals, as Michael Pellitteri took second at 152 and Jake Ricaa was the runner-up at 170 after turning in one of the more exciting matches in the semifinals. Ricca defeated Jalen Cruz of Dean Tech in triple overtime.

“It was a really good team effort again,” Milford coach Dana Bourassa said. “The six guys who went to the consolation finals and the finals all worked really hard.

“(Ricca) going to be a force if he keeps working hard. It’s a huge confidence booster and we think the world of Jake. He’s a great track guy and he’s a great wrestler. He’s a junior, so he’s still learning.”

Merrimack coach Tim McMahon got a bit of a surprise when five of the Tomahawks reached the finals, with four of them doing it at a varsity tournament for the first time.

“I think they very much impressed me,” McMahon said. “We had a tough meet on Wednesday night (against Milford), and to come back and have them power through, a lot of them were unexpected finalists, kids who had never wrestled at a varsity tournament or haven’t had this experience to come out on fire.”

Lucas Gardenour took home first at 220 while teammates Brendan Parr (113), Shawn Hebert (138), Jared Serrentino (182) and Shane Heath (195) all finished second.

“The most impressive thing we saw from Lucas was his aggressiveness,” McMahon said. “He’s always tended to lay back, but he’s a senior who has always been a good technical wrestler, but has never been an aggressive wrestler. This time, all his matches, he kept the pressure on and never let up. I think that’s a result of him being a senior and maturing, and also recently being named a captain. I think he’s taken it to another level.”

White Mountains’ Liam Hayden finished first at 120, as he rallied from a 5-0 deficit to win his match 7-5.

“When he was throwing in his leg, I hit a Kamikaze roll,” Hayden said. “I rolled and in the end, you end up on top, so it was just a quick roll, a pop over and you end up on top. I was holding him there in a headlock. In the final two (minutes), he was trying to throw his legs again and I was able to reach under his leg and pull him over top of me to get the reversal.”

Also finishing first was Manchester West’s Davie Pena, who rallied from a 5-2 deficit to beat Heath 9-6 in the 195 final.