home opener against Burlington this week
Published January 10, 2020
By JENNIFER GENTILE
MELROSE—The Melrose Red Raider wrestling team kicked off their 2020 season with a collection of wins and are 5-1 in their competitive season. This week, they open up their home league play when they host Burlington on Wednesday (post deadline) before competing in this weekend’s North Reading quad meet.
Melrose picked up a quality 48-28 victory over Tyngsboro on January 2 on the road. Among the winners were Hunter Adrian (126) Sean Herbert (152) Victor Rodriguez (160) Jacob Swan (195), Matt Hickey (220) and Eric Pimentel (285).
Melrose coach Larry Tremblay gave a hats-off to junior Matt Hickey, who pinned his opponent Daniel Paulauskas at 5:32. “He was the outstanding wrestler of the meet. Did a great job against his opponent.”
MATT HICKEY was among the winners during Melrose’s dual meet against Tyngsborough. (Jeff Maté photo)
Overall, Tremblay has been very happy with the work he’s seeing. Sean Herbert and Hunter Adrian remain (unsurprisingly) undefeated and Adrian will travel to New York for the Big East competition this weekend. But other wrestlers have been just as impressive in recent meets. That includes Eric Pimental and Victor Rodriguez, who took nice wins in Tyngsboro and were also instrumental in Melrose’s winning day at the Falcon Invitational last weekend, where Melrose beat Minnechaug, Framingham and Trumble, CT.
According to Tremblay, Shea Fogarty had a great win there, pinning opponent Ryan McConnell of Wilbraham in the 145. “He was a real standout there, and we are glad he’s back on the mat almost in 100% shape from his injury.” And Hunter Adrian and Sean Herbert’s pins proved vital over Minnechaug.
Melrose also enjoyed wins by Jacob Swan (an MD), Eric Pimental (pin) and Rodriguez (pin). Says the coach, “Right now, I’m happy with their efforts. We had some good wins at Lowell with Jacob [Swan] and Otto [Albanese] going far. I’m excited to see what this team will do.”
This weekend, Melrose will compete at North Reading for a quad meet, and will look to increase their win total. Their next home meet is slated for January 22 against Excel Academy at 7:00 p.m.
