The area’s wrestling programs are looking to rebuild and expand, so Saturday’s Capital City Classic was the place to be.

The tournament didn’t happen in 2021 and several teams dropped out of the 2022 edition after a snowstorm postponed the event by a day, but the Concord High School gymnasium on Saturday felt reminiscent of pre-pandemic times with matches happening on seven mats, featuring 29 teams from five states and all three divisions of NHIAA. 

Bishop Hendricken (based in Rhode Island) and Central Catholic (based in Massachusetts) claimed the top two spots the leaderboard with 294 points and 191.5, respectively, with Concord (184.5), Noble, Maine (175) and Keene (149.5) rounding out the top five teams.

Bow (82.5) finished 12th, John Stark (70) came in 13th and Winnisquam (36) was 24th.

Concord senior captain Austin Wells was the lone individual champion, winning four bouts by pin to win the 220-pound title, while Bow senior Hollis Jones was a finalist at 195, dropping a 9-4 decision to Plymouth’s Emmitt Nossaman in the final.

“This is an important tournament (for Concord’s program),” Concord head coach Ham Munnell said. “It raises a lot of money for us and it’s a great experience to host it. Having the out-of-state teams makes it tough, it is a very tough tournament.”

The Tide did well in the early matches, with several wrestlers advancing to the medal round, although the tough competition got the better of Concord later on.

Cullen Burke (113), Levi Madison (132), captain Rumi Mistry (182), Noah Blake (195) and Nate Feudner (285) all finished fourth in the respective weight classes.

Griffin Norwalt was sixth at 126.

“A bunch of kids wrestled pretty tough., we wrestled pretty good in the early rounds,” Munnell said. “We’re trying to get better. We had a great dual on Thursday (a 46-18 win over Keene) and I was hoping for more (at the tournament), but we still need to get better.”

Bow was 12th overall, but the second best Division III program at the tourney, behind three-time defending D-III champs Plymouth (seventh, 125 points). 

In addition to Jones’ runner-up finish, Adler Moura (fourth at 120 pounds) and Ben McDowell (sixth at 152) also placed for the Falcons.

“It’s a really tough tournament overall, it’s always really tough with kids from Massachusett, Rhode Island, Vermont and Maine, but I couldn’t be happier with our team,” said Bow head coach Bill Chavanelle. “It’s cool see Hollis (a first-year wrestler) progress. If you told me at the beginning of the year that Hollis was going to be wrestling this well, I wouldn’t have believed you, but he’s a fantastic athlete. His ultimate goal is to be on top of the podium.”

John Stark was led by Lukas Boulanger (fourth at 220) and Stephen Johnston (sixth at 170), while Ryan Cormier (fourth at 106) placed for Winnisquam.

Only two weeks of duals and tournaments remain in the regular season before the state championships take place on Feb. 11.

Concord and Bow will both hold their respective Senior Nights on Wednesday, with the Tide hosting Bedford and the Falcons hosting Newport and Kingswood.

John Stark hosts ConVal and Raymond in a make-up match on Monday before traveling to Mascoma on Wednesday.

Winnisquam will host ConVal and Pelham on Wednesday night.

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