Six of the area’s best wrestle at New England high school championship

    PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A half dozen wrestlers from the area took part in the 49th annual New England High School Wrestling Championship March 1-2 at the Providence Career and Technical Academy.

    Foxcroft Academy’s Tino Ayala grappled in the 113-pound division. Ayala fell in his opening match, 11-3 to Mac Hamilton of Lincoln-Sudbury (Mass.), and was pinned in his first consolation match at the 2:41- mark by Eric Kerr of Lynnfield/North Reading (Mass.).
    Tyler Salsbury of Dexter Regional High School had a bye to open his competition at 120 pounds, and in the next round he fell by pin fall to Conor Liebel of Agawan, Mass. In the consolation bracket Salsbury fell 3-1 to Sam Forman of Lincoln-Sudbury.
    Foxcroft’s Brooks Law had a bye in the first round of the 126-pound class, and he then recorded a 7-4 victory against Kyle Fletcher of Mt. Anthony (Vt.) to move on to the quarterfinals. In the final eight Law was pinned at the 2:51-mark by Christian Monserrat of Methuen, Mass., Monserrat went on to the win the New England championship. Law fell in his consolation match, 3-2 to Colin Sevigney of Class B Wells.
    After a bye at 138 pounds, Forrest Law of Foxcroft lost 6-1 to David Colvin of Westbrook/Old Saybrook (Conn.) In consolation competition Law fell, 8-5, to Josh Burnham of Timberlane, N.H.
    Foxcroft’s Wes Stinson had a bye at 152 pounds, and then lost 14-1 to Erik Tavers of Cumberland, R.I. Stinson was defeated, 11-5, by James Clausen of Chelmsford, Mass. in his consolation match.
    The sixth area wrestler to take part in the weekend competition was Corey Bjornson of Foxcroft. Bjornson began with an 18-9 major decision win over Connor Merenzi of LaSalle (R.I.) to move on the 195-pound quarterfinals. In his quarterfinal match Bjornson was pinned at 0:43 by Joe Chimelski of Nashua North (N.H.) who went on to finish in third place. Bjornson was pinned at the 2:44-mark by Steven Ghossaini of Immaculate/Joel Barlow (Conn.) in consolation grappling.
    Foxcroft ended up with a score of seven points, putting the Ponies 87th out of 162 teams representing all six New England states.