Windham/Gorham Middle School Wolfpack wrestling shows improvement as season nears end

By Matt Pascarella

In one of their final meets of the season, the Windham/Gorham Middle School Wolfpack wrestling team hit the mat against Sanford and Thornton Academy at Windham on Thursday, March 21 and showed how much they’ve improved over the course of the season. The Wolfpack defeated Sanford, 54-11, but lost to Thornton Academy 39-18.

Windham seventh grader Nate Somma, right, faces off against
a Thornton Academy Middle School opponent on Thursday,
March 21 in Windham. PHOTO BY MATT PASCARELLA 

“It was great to be back on the mat again,” said Windham eighth grader Patrick Davenport, who hadn’t wrestled for a couple weeks because of health reasons. “I really love ... the intensity of wrestling, it’s a great sport. It was great to be back; I have nerves a lot but I didn’t have much hesitation; I wanted to come out and have fun ... I made the most of it and got a pin. I think overall we did very good as a team. We worked really hard on getting out from bottom. We struggle with that, and locked hands and we didn’t have one locked hands call, and we got out most of the time on bottom so I’m pretty proud of the team for that.”

During Davenport’s match, he got his Thornton Academy opponent off balance and then took him right to the mat. He worked hard and forced his opponent onto his back and got the pin.

Gorham seventh grader James Swan was quick to take down his Thornton Academy opponent and held him there, cradling. Swan pinned his opponent after three rounds. In his second match he brought his Thornton Academy opponent to the mat and got the pin.

In Gorham seventh grader Lucision Roy’s first match, he worked to get his opponent’s shoulders on the mat and got the 9-5 win after three rounds.

Gorham seventh grader Devon Paradis escaped being pinned by a Sanford opponent. He battled for three rounds and eventually pinned him in the third round.

Windham eighth grader Jake Burke fought hard against Thornton Academy, and did avoid getting pinned, but lost, 7-1.

Gorham sixth grader Jimmy Costello was very aggressive during his match against Sanford. He won with a very impressive 15-0 score.

Windham eighth grader Maddox Butler brought his Sanford opponent to the mat in mere seconds and a very short time after that secured the pin.

Windham seventh grader Jullian Nappi pinned his Sanford opponent; Windham sixth grader Grady Johnson also pinned his Sanford opponent.

Windham seventh grader Nate Somma wrestled the current Thornton Academy Middle School state champion Quentin Cofone. in his match. He’d faced Cofone a few times before, and although he lost – he was able to force a sudden-death round and only lost by one point, 2-1.

“It was a really big moment for me because I wrestled him twice and the first time he beat me in the third period by pinning, and the second time he sprained my leg,” said Somma. Losing by only one point was really good.”

Somma thought Windham/Gorham performed well in the meet. They’ve been struggling for the past two weeks to listen and participate but they pulled it together and did a lot better by cheering each other on since the last meet.

Windham eighth grader Tristen Merchant took down his Sanford opponent. Merchant worked to flip him and get the pin; although he didn’t, Merchant won 12-0.

“The kids have been steadily improving all year showing what they’ve been working on in practice,” said Wolfpack wrestling coach Nick Buckley. “They wrestled hard; great sportsmanship that I always like to see, they supported their teammates well which always makes us coaches proud. I thought we got the first takedown almost every match ... to wrestle with a lead, gave us a win. We got a young team; we’ve taken our lumps but we’re improving; we need to ride tougher on top.” <