LONDONDERRY – Sam Wagner gave up the first points, trailed by three in the second period and was still down by one with less than 20 seconds to go. Not only was the Concord High junior battling Timberlane’s Nick Roeger, who had just beaten him eight days earlier, Wagner was also fighting the sickness that ran through the Crimson Tide last week.
Despite it all, Wagner hit a late shot against Roeger, gained control for the go-ahead two points with 15 seconds on the clock and hung on for a 5-4 win and the 106-pound title at Saturday’s Division I wrestling championships at Londonderry High.
“I was worried,” Wagner said, “but I got it.”
Concord senior captain Alex Buteau (220) and junior Isaac Gladey (170) also won D-I titles on Saturday, leading the way to a third straight runner-up team result for the Tide (192.5 points). Timberlane (254.5) won its 17th title in the last 18 years and Salem (145) was third, just ahead of Pinkerton (142).
Ten of Concord’s 14 wrestlers reached the semifinals and 13 of the 14 finished in the top six to qualify for next week’s Meet of Champions. The Tide is hoping to spend more time practicing this week and less time coughing and sneezing as it prepares for the MOC.
“I was just saying to (assistant coach Nick Zeras), ‘It would be nice to do some wrestling next week instead of giving the kids chicken soup and hugs,’ ” Concord coach Ham Munnell said. “When we got on the bus this morning it sounded like a hospital with all the coughing. I can’t say we wrestled great, but they gave me all they had, and I was proud of that.”
It certainly took all Wagner had to get the best of Roeger, who was the top seed at 106 thanks to his decision against Wagner when Concord traveled to Timberlane on Feb. 9. Wagner was already battling pneumonia at that point, and he traveled to Plaistow separately from the rest of the team, weighed in, lost to Roeger and went right home.
Even though he was still coughing on Saturday, Wagner had enough energy to beat his first two opponents with first-period pins. But it was Roeger who struck first in the final. After a flurry of early action, Roeger took a 2-0 lead in the middle of the first and held it until Wagner escaped for a point with just 2 seconds left in the opening period.
An escape and a one-point technical foul on Wagner gave Roeger a 4-1 lead going into the third period. Wagner cut it to 4-3 with 1:00 left on the clock, which is when Munnell started yelling from the corner, “Think about a win, Sammy!”
“Honestly, I had no clue if I could do it, but I had to try,” Wagner said.
The effort worked as he snapped Roeger’s head down, hit a single-leg shot and turned it into the two points he needed for the title.
Buteau didn’t need a last-second comeback for his 220-pound championship, but the Concord senior had to battle for every second against Pinkerton’s Robert Fahey. Saturday marked the third meeting between the two this year – Fahey pinned Buteau on Dec. 9 at the Blue Devil Classic and Buteau claimed a 3-1 decision in a dual meet against Pinkerton on Jan. 10.
Buteau knew Fahey was going to force the action, so he had his defense ready from the opening whistle and kept things scoreless after the first period. The Concord senior worked for an escape point in the middle of the second period and took that 1-0 lead into the third. Buteau was on top to start the third, and he stayed on top for the entire two minutes to earn the D-I crown he’s been dreaming about since his freshman year.
“Two minutes feels like a long time when you’re on top,” Buteau said. “I try to not look at the clock for as long as I can, but it seems like you’re on there forever, so sometimes you have to look.”
There wasn’t nearly as much drama in Gladey’s 170-pound final match against Timberlane’s Brandon Berube.
“I was feeling very confident because I wrestled that kid in the Lowell (Mass.) Holiday Tournament, and I pinned him,” Gladey said.
Berube came out aggressive against Gladey this time around, and the Concord junior had to stay patient playing defense. The strategy worked for Berube for the first two periods as Gladey held just a 4-3 lead going into the final period, but that was just fine with Gladey.
“I was still very confident because I worked so hard, so I knew I could take it during the third period,” Gladey said.
The confidence was well founded. Gladey upped his lead to 7-3 by the middle of the third and cruised to a convincing 9-4 win, impressive stuff for someone who finished fifth at this tournament a year ago.
“It’s been hard work,” Gladey said of the improvement. “All the hard work in the summer, in the wrestling room, I’ve been through a lot of training. So I kind of knew this was going to happen.”
Concord junior Isaac Habimana reached the 152 finals, but he lost an 11-5 decision to the top seed, Timberlane’s Justin Berube, one of the Owls’ big guns.
“(Habimana) wrestled tough against a tough wrestler,” Munnell said.
Habimana earned his spot in the final with a second-period pin in the quarterfinal and a 12-8 decision against Manchester Central’s Marquise G-boyer in the semifinal.
Habimana’s loss to Berube was one of only two losses in the medal round for the Tide, which went 11-2 in the last matches of the day.
“We rolled in the finals,” Munnell said. “The kids wrestled great. That feels good.”
Like Wagner, Noah Giffard was fighting off pneumonia, but he still managed to take third at 192. The Tide also got a third-place result from Cam Cate (132), who went 4-1 on the day.
Concord freshman Trey Fortier finished fourth at (126), while Jack Sargent (113), Ethan Comeau (120), Nick Bunch (138), Ben Widmann (145), Tyler Simpson (160) and Hugh Gunnison (182) all finished fifth.
(Tim O’Sullivan can be reached at 369-3341 or tosullivan@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @timosullivan20.)