Frank Mahoney, Nick Boudreau and Matt Richberg each reached the finals Saturday at the MIAA Division 3 Individual Wrestling Tournament at Cohasset.
While all three were defeated in the finals, they each earned a spot at the All-State Meet in Salem. The two-day tournament begins tomorrow and concludes Saturday.
Mahoney, who was coming off wining the Central 171-pound sectional title the weekend before, rolled through the opening day, pinning both of his opponents, Rich Benoit of Pembroke (3:52) and Ryan Carabine of Sabis (1:59). Mahoney edged South champion, Hanover’s Frannie Armstrong, 7-5, to reach the final. Mahoney went on to lose 9-4 to Jonathan Upton of Melrose, the North champion, for the title.
At 189, Boudreau did just enough to reach the semifinals earning a 7-4 decision to open his tournament then edging South champion Jim Carew of Foxboro 8-7. Boudreau squared off with Conor Johnston of Frontier, who Boudreau pinned during a regular season dual meet, in the semifinals and Johnston managed to go all six minutes but the Marauder senior pulled out a 3-2 decision. Boudreau came up short against the West champion, Alex Dumais of South Hadley, 8-2.
Richberg had a 6-0 win over Nick Burton of Pembroke in the opener and pinned Jon Taylor of Marblehead/Swampscott to get into the semifinals at heavyweight. The following day he soundly defeated South champion Mike Madeira of Scituate 8-1, but tweaked his knee in the process. His opponent, Troy Johnson of South Hadley, entered the finals by winning each of his previous two matches with injury defaults, and led Richberg toward the end of the match before pinning him with nine seconds left as Richberg went for a desperation takedown in an attempt to prevail by fall.
All three received difficult draws in the opening round according to coach Jim Maher. They will each open with opponents from Division 1. Mahoney has Andover’s Joe Chartier, who pinned him at the Lowell Tournament just before New Year’s, was the North runner-up and fourth at states. Boudreau has Steven Walsh of Brockton, the South Champion and fourth at states. Richberg will take on New Bedford’s Dennis Costa, the South champion and fourth at states.
Rob Salter, who was an alternate at 160 pounds after his fifth-place finish at sectionals, got a spot in the draw and went 0-2 in his first state meet. The junior was pinned late in the second period by top-seed and eventual champion Derek Golner of Tyngsboro in the opening round.
