Clippers dominate pair of dual meets
CUMBERLAND — It was not too long ago when a Warwick Vets-Cumberland dual meet was the biggest event on the wrestling calendar prior to the state meet.
But when the Hurricanes, who are in their last season of existence before the school is closed down, trekked north Thursday night, the only news to come out of the dual meet was the weight change of one Cumberland wrestler and the return of another.
Cumberland, hammered the short-handed Hurricanes 69-11 at the Wellness Center and one of those victories belonged to junior 170-pounder John Hayes, who hadn’t wrestled since the start of the season because of an undisclosed injury. Hayes pinned Robert Thomas in 5 minutes, 1 second for his first victory of the season.
“He had an injury serious enough that I’m surprised he’s even wrestling at all,” Cumberland coach Steve Gordon said after his team defeated the Hurricanes and Barrington. “We’re taking it very slow with him and he might wrestle in our tournament this weekend, but it depends on how he feels. He wrestled well, he’s tough.”
The other piece of news to come out of the tri-meet was senior captain Moulaye Sangare cutting down to 152 pounds on the final day of certification. Sangare, because neither the Eagles nor the Hurricanes had wrestler in his weight class, didn’t wrestle Thursday, but he is ready to go for the John Gorman Invitational on Saturday.
“Right now dual-meet-wise we’re going to have our problems because we’re giving away some weight classes with JV wrestlers,” Gordon said. “Where these guys are is the best weight class for them and I think they have better shots of winning state titles where they are at now. We’re going to be tough at the state tournament because there are no easy outs.”
One wrestler who did see some mat time Thursday was undefeated 195-pound senior captain Nate Skawinski. All the returning state finalist has done this season is dominate the Marshfield (Mass.) and Sanford Warrior Invitational tournaments.
Thursday, Skawinski needed just 13 seconds to win his match against Barrington and after a slow start against Warwick’s Austin Morelli, the senior earned a win by pin 1:02 into the second period.
“What’s motivating me right now is finally winning the title, that’s what I’m working toward,” Skawinski said. “Since last year, I’ve really tried to work on my neutral a lot more. I’m working on being confident and taking more shots.”