Hayes, Balon, Skawinski win titles
Pair of Clippers, Lion cruise to tournament titles Saturday
CUMBERAND – Kylie Creamer admitted it's been a long-time dream to clinch an individual championship at the annual John D. Gorman Memorial Invitational Tournament.
After all, his own Cumberland High contingent hosted the event, so naturally he wanted to say he commanded his 132-pound weight class at home – and against some of the best grapplers New England has to offer.
The senior tri-captain coasted through a quarterfinal match against Danny Martinez of North Providence, 12-3, at the latest Gorman event on Saturday afternoon, then stunned Ryan Angers of Tolland, Conn. with a firstround pin in the semifinals.
“That first match was manageable, and I was able to control him,” Creamer stated. “In the semi, I just got lucky. I knew the kid was one of the top wrestlers in New England, but I was able to get the cradle. He made a mistake, so I just stuck him and squeezed, and now I'm in the final. I'm really happy about that.”
His quest to win, however, fell short, as sen- ior Tim Kane of Fairfield Warde, Conn. leveled a pin at 1:36 to crush Creamer's dream.
“Last year, when I was wrestling at 126 in this tournament, I didn't win or place second, so I was thinking, 'I've never won it, and it's our own meet, so I really want to,'” Creamer said. “I mean, nobody likes to lose. I was just taking it match-by-match, trying to do the best I could.
“I faced (Kane) before at 126, and he beat me by a tech fall (15 points or greater),” he added. “I've never forgotten that.”
Stated head coach Steve Gordon, now in his 48th year at the helm: “I thought Kylie wrestled great throughout the tournament. He just got beaten by a better wrestler; Kane's an All-American, and he's nationally ranked, so if Kylie had won, it would've been quite the upset.”
Creamer nevertheless turned out to be one of four Clippers to earn berths in a championship bout, and two of them claimed their respective crowns. At 170 pounds, junior Jack Hayes needed just 23 seconds to pin Hope's Marcoye Adotevi, while senior tri-captain Nate Skawinski disposed of Nathan Moreira of North Providence, 5-1, at 195.
Clippers' sophomore Jeremy Batista also qualified for the title tilt at 120, but he sustained an 8-2 loss to North Attleboro senior Devin Spratt.
“The last time they wrestled against each other (at the Marshfield tourney two weeks ago), Spratt pinned him, but I thought Jeremy actually wrestled better (Saturday),” Gordon noted. “He was extremely aggressive, which I liked. Spratt's a senior and Jeremy's only a sophomore, so I think he was a little stronger.
“Devin just caught Jeremy in a couple of mistakes, but he was never in danger of being put on his back, so I was happy about that. It shows he's improving.”
With the two victories from Hayes and Skawinski, not to mention other important points scored in the consolation bracket Cumberland finished fourth overall with 137 points, just a point behind third-place Fairfield Warde.
As expected, North Attleboro snared the team championship with 192 points, 43 better than runner-up Bristol Eastern, Conn. (149).La Salle gained the fifth spot with 119.5, while North Providence took sixth with 110.
Lincoln, with only one finalist, settled for 11th with 57 points, though that total was only three behind ninth-place Johnston (60) and two in back of Hope. Burrillville mustered 15th out of the 16 representatives from four states with 18 points, two more than last-place Smithfield.
“I wasn't expecting to win it,” said Gordon, whose squad had claimed nine of the previous 12 titles and six straight before placing third last winter. “We had too many starters, four in all, out of the lineup, but I thought our kids wrestled their hearts out.
“What we didn't have that North Attleboro, Bristol Eastern and Fairfield Warde did were guys scoring points in the consolation rounds,” he continued. “In the past, we've been deep in all the weight divisions; this year, we didn't because of academic and discipline issues.
“Still, we had some guys place higher than we thought they would. I'm very happy with the overall effort.”
One Clipper whom Gordon believed would qualify for a final was senior Moulaye Sangare, but he dropped a chess-like, 1-0 suddendeath overtime verdict to Bristol Eastern's Mike Barrett in a 152 semifinal. He nevertheless rebounded with a 10-0 major decision over La Salle's Mason Bernard to snag third overall.
“That was unfortunate,” Gordon said of the defeat. “We thought Moulaye would win the tournament, but he had to cut weight so fast after (playing) football that he's not used to wrestling there. I know he'll adjust as time goes on, and will be fine.”
The only other area champion came from the Lions, when junior captain and 182-pounder Tyler Balon pinned Toru Goto of Cambridge Rindge & Latin at 1:50.
“We had three kids make the semis – Tyler, (senior captain) Soliamon Saqib at 195 and his brother Jebran (Saqib) at 220,” mentioned LHS head coach Mike Tuorto. “(Junior) Jack Brayall wrestled (fel- low heavyweight) Carson Kenney of Johnston in the quarterfinals, but lost in overtime, 4-3.
“The thing is, we're more of a tournament team than a dual-meet team because we have more quality than quantity,” he added. “Then again, we can hold our own in the duals. Right now, we're 5-4 overall and 3-4 in Division II-A.
“From 152 on up, we're pretty strong, and when you throw (senior) Caleb Gagnier into the mix at 138 or 145, we're going to score some points. This was tough for us because there are so many out-of-state teams here, but we enjoy coming to this one every year. It's a good litmus test to see where our wrestlers are at this point of the season.”
First-year Burrillville co-chiefs Vinny Micucci and Brayton Round III reiterated that fact after only two of their matmen managed semifinal bids. They included senior captain Greg Lacroix (the kid brother of former state champion and Cumberland High standout Tom); and freshman Nick Gosselin, who was pinned by Fairfield Warde senior Jack Price at 138.
“We went into this six starters light; we had kids out due to illness and other reasons,” he indicated. “Our top placement was Greg; he went 3-2 in this thing, and I thought he did an amazing job. You see, this is really a Division I tournament, with some of the best teams from four states. What I liked about Greg was he wasn't afraid to move. He wasn't being cautious. He took quite a few chances and was aggressive.
“As for Nick, he lost in the same spot in the bracket that Greg did, the consolation semis, and he ended up finishing eighth,” he added. “I thought he did well, too. He executed almost everything we've taught him, but he was going up against superior wrestlers. Given his experience level, he did fine, and he actually got a lot more experience here.”
Good news abounds for the Broncos, as they currently remain unbeaten in Division II-B with a 7-0 mark, courtesy of prominent triumphs over Exeter/West Greenwich, Lincoln, Hope, East Greenwich and Juanita Sanchez.
They also had five kids reach the Gorman quarterfinals, including the aforementioned tandem; freshmen Josh Kanakry (106) and Jake Rivers (120); and senior Travis Pare (145).
Others who collected necessary experience were frosh Robbie Simas (126), Rom Ames (132) and Caleb Crossley (heavyweight).
“We have eight freshmen on the team, and six in this tournament,” Micucci offered. “Crossley lost two in a row in a weight class for those 221 pounds and up, and he came in at 212. He was opposing kids 70-plus pounds heavier.
“We had a lot of young talent out there,” he continued. “Like I said, they were facing D-I kids, so – with us being a D-II team – wrestling against all of those individuals was a great privilege. It's only going to make us better. We got a lot of experience here; we got the chance to learn, and that's just what we wanted.
“The guys gave it all they had, and left it all on the mat.”