For Christopher Munnell, the recipe for snapping his tournament winless streak this season was simple: he needed to channel his superstitious side.
“I mean going into Capital City, I haven’t actually won a tournament this season, which is a little disappointing. I’ve gotten to the finals but haven’t punched it in and it was kind of getting to me,” said Munnell, a captain on the Concord High School wrestling team. “So I kind of switched up the singlets actually. Went with the black, the one I like, and I think it was a tough day but I grinded it out.”
After Munnell’s performance at the Capital City Classic on Saturday – one of New England’s most challenging one-day wrestling tournaments – the entire Crimson Tide team may want to consider a permanent change to black singlets.
Munnell cruised through the quarters and semifinals before squaring off with Warwick’s Garrison Potter in the finals at 160 pounds. Munnell was able to control the match and came away with a 4-0 decision, joining teammate George Tarwo (182, 12-3 decision over Plymouth’s Garrett Macedonia) as repeat Capital City champions for Concord, which also took home the team title with 219 points.
“It’s a great feeling of winning at home with the home fans and everything,” Munnell said. “My mom, my sister, my whole family and all the friends and family from Concord wrestling. It was really great. It was special and I’m happy to leave it on a good note.”
Concord Coach Ham Munnell added, “We thought we had a shot at winning this thing this year. We haven’t won it since 2008 and the kids wrestled good … They wrestled tough and we had a lot of good performances from a lot of the kids and I thought they wrestled hard.”
The Crimson Tide beat out several other teams from across New England in the 22-team tournament and used its depth to pick up points across the entire roster. Concord edged runner-up Warwick, R.I., (183.5) for the top overall team spot, while Plymouth (133) placed fourth and Bow rounded out the local team scoring with 44 points – good for 18th place.
“We had some injuries today, too, and I felt like the team really battled tough today,” Christopher Munnell said. “We didn’t always come out on top but we just wrestled with heart and courage and I felt like we left it all on the mat.”
Concord’s Sam Wagner was credited with a strong day by both Christopher and Coach Munnell on his way to a second-place finish at 106. Wagner collected three pins, defeating Pinkerton’s Kristopher DiNitto in his opening match, toppling Hunter Finemore in the quarters and knocking off Warwick’s Shawn Holland in the semifinals before falling to St. Johnsbury’s Hunter Verge in the finals.
“It was pretty good,” Wagner said of his day. “The semifinals was hard and tough and I could of done better in the finals … (Verge) was just better. He had more talent.”
Tide sophomore Isaac Gladey put together an impressive string of matches at 152, outlasting Plymouth’s Alex Hamel in the semifinals in a 16-10 decision before coming up just short in the finals against Manchester West’s Markus Joseph, falling 3-1 in overtime.
“Obviously the kids who won it did great,” Coach Munnell said. “I thought Isaac at 152 did a good job and the same with Wagner at 106 and Jayson McDonald Davis at 170.”
The Tide also received scoring from Forest Mackenzie (4th, 138), Isaac Habimana (3rd, 145), McDonald Davis (3rd, 170) , Cameron Cate (6th, 120), Nick Bunch (6th, 126), Isaac Bosa (6th, 152), Noah Giffard (4th, 195), Ian Schafer (6th, 195), and Alexander Buteau (64th, 220) to help capture the title.
Bow’s Zackary Anderson finished fourth at 120 and Mark Borak lost to the fifth-place match to Bedford’s Mason Adams to finish sixth at 138.
“The kids that stepped in to fill spots, you have to give them credit, they really wrestled great,” Christopher Munnell said. “And not just the people who made it to the finals, but getting those third and fourth finishes, the fifth and sixth, those are big points, especially when it comes to tournament season and Division I’s.”
Concord will put its undefeated season on the line next against Timberlane on Feb. 8.
(Jay McAree can be reached at 369-3340, jmcaree@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @JayMcAree.)
Concord 4, Man. Central 3
Key players: Concord – Andy Cole (2 goals, assist), Alex Marceau (2 assists), Trevor Bickford (goal, assist), Ethan Donlon (goal), Drew Livingston (assist), Andrew Paquette (assist)
Highlights/key moments: The Tide scored three goals in the first eight minutes and led 3-0 after the first period. Bickford scored a shorthanded goal to give Concord a 4-1 lead after the second, which it was able to hold onto.
Coach’s quote: “We came out strong and then stopped skating. We sat back and needed to put the game away when we had multiple power play oppurtunities. We will take the win, but need to play complete games heading into Febuary when the schedule gets much tougher.” – Concord’s Dunc Walsh
Records: Concord 9-1; Central 4-5
Pembroke/Campbell 8, Timberlane 2
Key players: Pembroke/Campbell – Matt Tremblay (3 goals), Dylan Fisher (3 goals), Nate Lamontagne (goal), Jake Tremblay (goal), Connor Locke (18 saves)
Highlights/key moments: Behind hat tricks from Matt Tremblay and Fisher, Pembroke/Campbell had little trouble scoring, registering four goals in the third period alone. Locke, making his first-ever start in net, turned in a solid performance to keep Timberlane at bay.
Records: Pembroke/Campbell 7-4; Timberlane 0-8
Bow 0, Windham 0
Highlights/key moments: The Falcons outshot the Jaguars, 43-18, but couldn’t find the back of the net in the their first tie of the season.
Records: Bow 10-1-1; Windham 8-3-1
Kennett 2, John Stark-Hopkinon 1
Key players: John Stark-Hopkinton – Brett Patnode (goal), Noah Champman (assist), Jameson Bourque (27 saves)
Highlights/key moments: Patnode evened the score at 1-1 in the second period, but the first-place Eagles tallied the game-winner one minute into the third.
Coach’s quote: “This game had good pace up and down the ice. I was proud of how our team came out and played hard from start to finish. It shows we can play with the top teams in the league when we play a full 45 minutes.” – John Stark-Hopkinton’s Denis Kolehmainen
Records: John Stark-Hopkinton 6-4; Kennett 9-1
Kearsarge-Plymouth 9,
Laconia-Winnisquam 5
Key players: Kearsarge-Plymouth – Tucker James (3 goals, 2 assists), Tony Velez (2 goals, 2 assists), Jakob Arnold (2 goals, assist), Doug Breault (goal, assist), Alex Nangle (goal), Josh Johnston (goal), Garrett Demas (goal), Max Phillips (assist)
Highlights/key moments: The Cats earned their second win in their last three games with a high-scoring victory over the Wolfpack.
Coach’s quote: “It was a true team effort. Everybody was really hungry for a win and Cody Rowe was our backstop today saving 17 out of 22 shots. It was a sloppy game if you look at the penalties on the score sheet, and that’s something that we certainly have to work on, but all-in-all we played a good two-way hockey game tonight with strong back checking and we worked hard to protect the puck coming out of our own end.” – Kearsarge-Plymouth’s Dave McKenney
Records: Kearsarge-Plymouth 3-7; Laconia-Winnisquam 0-9
Concord 8, Kingswood 1
Key players: Concord – Shannon Prospert (3 assists), Delana Erickson (goal, assist), Emily Forward (goal, assist), Maddy Farrelly (goal, assist), Olivia Branch (2 assists), Jill Dusseault (2 assists), Ella Doherty (goal), Erin Doherty (goal), Nicole Jones (goal), Jaden Morin (goal), Gabby McDonald (goal), Lilly Vezina (goal), Maddy Audet (11 saves)
Highlights/key moments: The Tide scored six first-period goals and netted two more in the second as Concord won its fourth straight game.
Records: Concord 7-3; Kingswood 3-9
Pittsfield 59, Epping 57
Key players: Pittsfield – Cam Darrah (31 points, 10 rebounds, 5 rebounds), Dylan Bocash (11 points), Josh Whitter (9 points, 10 rebounds)
Highlights/key moments: The Panthers took a 25-23 lead with 45 seconds to go in the second quarter and never relinquished that advantage. Pittsfield completed the game after an Epping town water main broke, forcing a postponement during the fourth quarter of the game on Friday night. The Panthers held a four-point lead with 5:36 to go in the fourth quarter entering the final portion of the game Saturday.
Coach’s Quote: “I was really impressed with the way the boys dealt with the circumstances. They could have easily been upset and allowed that to take them out of the game. Instead they looked at it as a challenge and came back with poise and focus. Everyone chipped in at one point or another and it was a team win.” – Pittsfield’s Jay Darrah
Records: Pittsfield 10-1; Epping 8-2
Pembroke 54, Plymouth 36
Key players: Pembroke – Brooklyn Zanis (19 points), Morgan Allen (11 points, 11 rebounds)
Highlights/key moments: The Spartans recorded consecutive victories for the first time this season thanks to the 18-point win over the Bobcats on Friday.
Records: Pembroke 4-6; Plymouth 0-10
Epping 36, Pittsfield 19
Key players: Pittsfield – Katie Rollins (12 rebounds, 7 points)
Highlights/key moments: The Blue Devils came out with a full-court press and prevented the Panthers from getting into any offensive rhythm. The defensive pressure lasted the entirety of Friday night’s game.
Coach’s quote: “Epping took us out of the game from the start and we just couldn’t recover.” – Pittsfield’s Heidi Hall
Records: Pittsfield 2-10; Epping 6-5
Pembroke fifth
Key players: Pembroke – Jack Thomas (1st slalom, 9th giant slalom), Jackson Frazier (3rd slalom, 8th GS), Cole Sporcic (23rd slalom, 26th GS), Ryan Burns (41st slalom), Killian Drouse (45th GS)
Highlights/key moments: Thomas was the overall winner in the slalom event and freshman Frazier finished third to lead the Spartans to fifth place in the southern New Hampshire championship race at Mount Sunapeeon Friday. Team scores were calculated by combining giant slalom and slalom scores. Hollis-Brookline (727), ConVal (723) and Souhegan (715) were the top three teams, followed by Windham (700), Pembroke (683), Hanover (658) and Oyster River (608).
Pembroke seventh
Key players: Pembroke – Samantha Boyajian (18th giant slalom, 28th slalom), Jessica Boyajian (24th GS, 30th slalom), Emily Duffy (38th slalom, 40th GS), Lily Gilbert (36th slalom, 41st GS)
Highlights/key moments: Freshman Samantha Boyajian was the fastest skier for the Spartans in both the slalom and giant slalom at the southern New Hampshire championships at Mount Sunapee on Friday. Hanover had the best combined score of both events, finishign with 752 points. Hollis-Brookline (744), Oyster River (703), Souhegan (694), Windham (684), ConVal (644) and Pembroke 623) rounded out the team scores.