Diauto gets better ending this time
READING >> Silver Lake girls wrestling senior Sydney Diauto vividly remembers losing in last year’s MIAA All-State 106-lb. final with just two seconds left in the match.
While she wasn’t thinking about it heading in, all it took was one minute and 31 seconds this time around to leave the MIAA girls wrestling All-State Tournament at Reading High School with a different memory Saturday afternoon.
By pinning Duxbury freshman Quinn Edwards with her go-to bar, Diauto finished off a sort of revenge tour with an AllState individual crown in her last career match. She paired with junior Lindsay Laws (defeated Agawam’s Olivia Agudelo via pin in 1:11 in the 160-lb. match) to propel the Lakers to a second-place 56 points.
Agawam won the team title with 70 points, though Silver Lake was the only team to finish with two individual winners.
Central Catholic took third place with 50 points and Lowell finished fourth (41 points) in its first year as a stand-alone program.
“I’m super proud because these two are both hard workers,” said Silver Lake head coach Wayne Reissfelder. “It’s awesome having them in the room, they’re all business and leaders. I’m happy we get (Laws) back for another year and it was a really nice ending for (Diauto).”
“It feels great, it was a really good experience,” Diauto added. “I’m glad I could end my high school career like that. … There’s a lot (of pride in the program). When I first started out, I was the only girl on the team. Winning something like this, even second place as a team — it’s really good.”
Diauto and Laws’ wins added to a long list of big finishes from wrestlers out of the Patriot League.
Scituate’s Sara McLaughlin defeated Hingham’s Mia Dineen by pin (1:17) in the 111-lb. final, marking two finals matches that came down to two Patriot League wrestlers. Having five total reach final matches was notable.
“It’s incredible,” Reissfelder said. “It was nice to see. … Patriot League really represented well, especially in the lower weight classes.”
Central Catholic and Agawam joined Silver Lake as teams to have two wrestlers reach the final. Ashley Dehney repeated as an individual champion for the Raiders by defeating Middleboro’s Ayla Goldman in the 147-lb. final via decision (6-5), moments after Sima Wambuzi took Ashland’s Nora Quitt to sudden victory in the 136-lb. final before losing via decision, 8-6.
“(Wambuzi) is a second-year wrestler and she’s been in the state finals twice, and (Quitt) is the best girl in the tournament and she hung with her,” said Raiders coach Jamie Durkin. “Everybody was watching this one, nobody was
watching the boys because it was so exciting. And (Dehney) delivered, she did what she needed to do. I couldn’t be more proud, two-time champ. Phenomenal, phenomenal job.”