LONDONDERRY – Noah Giffard caught pneumonia before last year’s Division I wrestling championships. This year, the Concord senior ruptured a disc leading into the D-I meet.
“I don’t know why this stuff always happens,” Giffard said.
That wasn’t a complaint or an excuse, the senior captain his teammates call “Big Noah” doesn’t have time for either of those things. Besides, he didn’t need either on Saturday. Despite the ruptured disc and a two-week layoff, Giffard claimed the 220-pound title at the D-I championships with a 3-2 decision against Pinkerton Academy’s Robert Fahey.
“I wasn’t optimistic,” Concord coach Ham Munnell said of Giffard’s chances. “He’s a tough kid, a fit kid, and he’s going to barrel through, and I was hoping he could do it, but not to work out for two weeks and then go out there and do what he did, that’s impressive.”
The Crimson Tide finished second as a team for a fourth straight year and Timberlane won its 18th title in the last 19 years by finishing with 270.5 points to Concord’s 253. But the Tide closed the gap on the Owls – last year Timberlane’s margin of victory was 62 points, this year it was down to 17.5. Pinkerton finished third with 187 points.
Concord senior Isaac Gladey won his second straight 170-pound D-I title and Tide sophomores Jack Sargent (126) and Abbas Abdulrahman (182) both finished runner-up. Concord sent wrestlers in all 14 weight classes and all of them finished in the top six, which means they all qualified for next week’s Meet of Champions.
“Everyone showed up,” Giffard said. “This is the point in the year where, if you’re not a high seed, you can just kind of end your season, and nobody on our team wanted to do that, so that shows they’re having fun.”
Finding joy in the sport felt like a theme for the Tide.
“We came here to have fun, win or lose, we want to have fun no matter what,” said Concord senior Nick Bunch, who is a captain along with Giffard and Gladey and finished third at 152 on Saturday. “It’s high school wrestling, that’s what it’s about, it’s not the Olympics. We want to win, everybody wants to win, but it’s more important to keep it fun.”
Things weren’t so fun for Giffard the first time he faced Fahey … way back in middle school.
“He was my very first match, in sixth grade, and he beat the crap out of me,” Giffard said.
The Concord senior admitted he didn’t like wrestling at first. But he liked Steve Shippos, the Rundlett Middle School coach, so Giffard stuck with it.
“I learned to like the hard work, and being in the room, and making friends,” Giffard said. “But before that, it wasn’t fun.”
It seemed like Giffard’s hard work would pay off with a title last year when he was the top seed at 195 pounds, but pneumonia ran through the Tide team at just the wrong time and Giffard wound up third at 195 in last year’s D-I meet. When he ruptured his disc two weeks ago, it looked like Giffard would be derailed again. He couldn’t get on the mat to train for Saturday’s meet and he was nervous about being rusty, but the worry went away after he opened the tournament by pinning Alvirne’s Alex Linke in the first period.
“You first go out there and your legs are a little bit wobbly,” Giffard said. “But it was nice because it was a tournament, so you have time to move into it.”
He didn’t need much time, pinning his quarterfinal opponent in the first round and pinning his way through the semifinals in the second round. Things wouldn’t be so easy against Fahey, but Giffard was never truly threatened. After a scoreless first period, Fahey escaped for a 1-0 lead in the second period. But Giffard easily got his one-point escape to start the third, landed the only shot of the match and gained control for a 3-1 lead with 25 seconds left on the clock and comfortably held on for the 3-2 win.
It was a similar path to the title for Gladey, who pinned his first three opponents before beating Exeter’s Nick Beebe, 3-0, in the final. But the path was not similar to the one Gladey took to last year’s 170 title.
“I feel much better about winning it this year because there was a lot of good competition, a lot of good guys in my weight class,” Gladey said. “This year was tougher than last year.”
And Beebe, who Gladey beat handily earlier this season, was also tougher the second time around.
“(Beebe) got a lot better, a lot stronger,” Gladey said. “And he’s a tall kid, so I could not shoot on him, I had to wait for him to shoot on me and then make a move. Or if I do shoot, I have to go right away. So I was being cautious with him, but I was still very confident in myself.”
Sargent, who was the No. 4 seed at 126, pinned his first two opponents before posting an 11-5 semifinal win against the No. 3 seed, Windham’s Conner Sills. In the final, Timberlane freshman Codey Wild, the No. 1 seed, pinned Sargent in the second period.
The road to the finals opened up nicely for Abdulrahman, who was the No. 3 seed at 182. The Concord sophomore got a bye in the first round, pinned the No. 6 seed in the quarterfinals and then in the semifinals faced Exeter’s Kyle Cotoia, the No. 7 seed who upset the No. 2 seed, Nicolas Karpf from Manchester Central. Abdulrahman pinned Cotoia in the first round before getting pinned in the final by Pinkerton’s Sterling McLaughlin, the top seed in the weight class.
Bunch and sophomore Trey Foriter (132) both earned third-place results for Concord. Keith McFetridge (113), Ethan Comeau (120), Khan Amiri (145) and Tyler Simpson (160) all finished fourth. Peter Sargent took fifth at 195, and Ghana Darjee (106), Evan Berube (138) and Cam Thompson (285) all finished sixth.
“It’s funny, it wasn’t the best week of practice, but they’re kids, and sometimes it doesn’t matter what you do, they just show up or they don’t show up,” Munnell said. “But they showed up today, all of them.”
(Tim O’Sullivan can be reached at 369-334, tosullivan@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @timosullivan20)
Boys’ hockey
Concord 5, Bishop Guertin 4
Key players: Concord – Kyle McKinnon (2G), Shane Riley (G, 2A), Matt Hauschild (2A), Cam LaRiviere (G), Devin Philbrick (G), Zach Drew (A), Parker Taylor (22 saves)
Highlights: The Tide took a 2-0 first-period lead, had a 4-2 lead at the second intermission and LaRiviere’s game-winning goal to open the third secured the victory. The Cardinals scored two goals to close out the game, including one with a few seconds left, but couldn’t complete the comeback.
Coach’s quote: “Five-on-five we played pretty well. That’s a big plus for us. I thought we could’ve been a little better defensively as a whole unit, but we survived (the comeback). Coming off of Wednesday’s loss it was a good effort.” – Concord’s Dunc Walsh
Records: Concord 12-3; Bishop Guertin 8-8
John Stark-Hopkinton 5,
ConVal-Conant 0
Key players: John Stark-Hopkinton – Paul Molnar (2G, A), Joe Sawitsky (2A), Owen Olson (2A), Larsen Burack (G), Cooper Rivers (G), Nolan Sauer (G), Brett Patnode (G), Benny Madden (A), Jameson Bourque (17 saves)
Highlights: The General Hawks jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first six minutes of play with goals from Rivers and Burack and extended the lead to 5-0 by the end of the second period.
Coach’s quote: “The team is finally getting over our sicknesses and starting to play back to our potential. Three different lines scoring with four different players finding the back of the net helped with our balanced attack.” – John Stark-Hopkinton’s Denis Kolehmainen
Records: John Stark-Hopkinton 15-0; ConVal-Conant 5-8
Belmont-Gilford 3, Berlin 1
Key players: Belmont-Gilford – Joey Blake (G), Troy Gallagher (G), Trevor Chassie (G)
Highlights: The Bulldogs fell behind early, but scored three goals in a four-minute span in the third period to secure a big victory. The win gave the Bulldogs sole possession of third place and bumped the Mountaineers down to fourth.
Records: Belmont-Gilford 12-5; Berlin 11-6
Concord 6, Manchester Central 0
Highlights: The Tide snapped its two-game skid with a shutout victory over the Little Green.
Coach’s quote: “This game was a great opportunity to get the entire team involved and the girls worked hard and together to get this win. We have two tough games to close out the regular season before heading into playoffs, including our senior night game against (first place) Oyster River-Portsmouth on Tuesday.” – Concord’s Pat McDonough
Records: Concord 13-3; Man. Central 1-13