NASHUA – George Tarwo left no doubt.
After winning tightly contested titles the last two years, Tarwo dominated Saturday’s Meet of Champions at Nashua South. The Concord senior pinned his first opponent in the first round, claimed a 7-3 decision in the semifinals and rolled to a 13-1 win in the 182-pound finals for his third straight MOC crown.
“This is where you come to battle,” Tarwo said. “I put the work in, I came to battle today, and I can’t complain about the results.”
Tarwo was the only Concord champion, but five Crimson Tide wrestlers placed in the top three to qualify for the New England championships on Friday and Saturday in Providence, R.I. – freshman Sam Wagner (second at 106), sophomore Forest Mackenzie (third at 138), senior Chris Munnell (third at 160) and sophomore Noah Giffard (third at 195).
The Tide finished second in the team standings for the third straight year, collecting 176 points. Timberlane (298) won its 14th straight MOC title and Windham (102) was third for a second year in a row.
“We brought 13, we placed 11 (in the top six) and we’re sending five to New Englands,” Concord Coach Ham Munnell said. “Even the guys who got knocked out wrestled tough today. It was a great day for Concord.”
It was certainly a great day for Tarwo, who started things off by pinning Exeter’s Tim Ramsey (who wound up fourth) in 1 minute, 31 seconds. Tarwo followed that up with a 7-3 win over Pinkerton’s Sterling McLaughlin, who also lost to Tarwo last week in the Division I finals, to set up a match with Plymouth’s Garrett Macedonia, the two-time D-III champ, in the final.
Tarwo opened the scoring against Macedonia by hitting a single leg shot 40 seconds into the first round for a 2-0 lead. After that, Tarwo relentlessly rode Macedonia for the rest of the first round, hitting him with cross faces, leaning on his neck and using all of his 182 pounds to keep Macedonia on the mat.
In the second round, Tarwo showed off his quickness. It took him just seven seconds to escape from bottom for a 3-0 lead. He made it 5-0 when he picked Macedonia’s ankle so fast the Plymouth senior never saw it coming. And when Macedonia did manage to break free from that control for his only point of the match, Tarwo wasted no time taking him back down to make it 7-1 heading into the third.
Macedonia went for it in that final round, but that’s when Tarwo showed off his skill. He blocked one of Macedonia’s shots with brute strength, but then he smoothly turned defense into offense and flipped Macedonia to his back for another fall and, eventually, three back points.
Tarwo will be making his third trip to New Englands on Friday, but he’s yet to place in the regional tournament. He wants to change that this time around, and then some.
“My goal is to be one of the top two in New England,” Tarwo said.
Wagner, Concord’s other finalist, won his first match of the day by pin and then had to face Manchester Memorial’s Shamir Rai, who pinned Wagner in the D-I semifinals last week. This time, Wagner claimed a 10-7 decision over Rai. Things didn’t get any easier in the semifinals, but Wagner found his way to a 10-5 decision over Plymouth’s Joe Cleary, the top seed and D-III champion.
“I was expecting a tough match (against Cleary) and that’s what it was,” Wagner said. “I just remember looking up at the clock and I was doing better than I thought, so I just kept going.”
Just like he did in last week’s third/fourth D-I match, Timberlane’s Barret Kapler beat Wagner in the finals, this time with a second-period pin.
Concord’s Mackenzie also had to beat an opponent he lost to recently in order to qualify for New Englands. But Mackenzie had to overcome someone he had lost to earlier in the day.
The Concord sophomore won his first match by pin before falling to Campbell’s Dayton Chandonnet, the D-III champ, 10-7. Mackenzie worked his way back through the consolation bracket with two pins before facing Chandonnet in the third/fourth match with a trip to Providence on the line. Mackenzie applied what he learned the first time around and beat Chandonnet, 4-2.
“Forest had a great tournament,” Munnell said.
Chris Munnell also had to battle his way through the consolation bracket to make a second straight trip to New Englands. The senior captain, who won the D-I title last week, received a bye but then lost his first match of the day, 5-4, to Campbell’s Dan Boomhower, who beat Munnell in the 152 final at last year’s MOC.
Munnell shook off the loss – and an illness he’s been fighting all week – to win four straight matches. He claimed two of those by pin, including a second-period pin in the third/fourth match against Manchester Central’s Momin Khawaja to punch his ticket to Providence.
“I was proud of my son today,” Coach Munnell said. “We always talk about (how) it’s easy to win when things are going your way, but it’s how you respond when things aren’t going your way that really matters, and I like how he responded.”
Giffard also responded well to adversity. After rolling to a 14-1 win in his opening match, the Concord sophomore lost in the quarterfinals. He bounced back with an 8-1 win in his first consolation match, but then he had to face Plymouth’s Troy Johnson, the D-III champion who had beaten Giffard earlier this season. This time, Giffard pulled out a 6-5 decision.
“I wrestled him smarter this time,” Giffard said. “I went over a lot of film and got a lot of coaching this week from Ham, and that helped.”
In the third/fourth match, Giffard said he was, “more aggressive than usual, and I had fun.” That formula turned into a 5-2 decision over Merrimack’s Dom Damata.
Sending two sophomores and a freshman to New Englands bodes well for Concord’s future, and there was almost a third sophomore who qualified, but Alex Buteau (220) lost a triple-overtime heartbreaker in his third/fourth match. Concord senior Jake Linquata (113) also just missed out on a trip to Providence as he lost in overtime in the third/fourth match.
The other place winners for Concord were Nick Bunch (fifth, 126), Ben Widmann (fourth, 132), Isaac Habimana (fifth, 152) and Isaac Gladey (sixth, 170).
(Tim O’Sullivan can be reached at 369-3341 or at tosullivan@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @timosullivan20.)