Wrestling at the Cardigan Wrestling Tournament

On Saturday, 1/13, the Eaglebrook wrestling team woke-up before the sun did and headed off to the Cardigan Mountain School for the annual Cardigan Wrestling Tournament. It was a cold and rainy day when the team loaded into the two buses and the weather grew colder and colder as they approached their destination. Rain turned to sleet and sleet turned to freezing rain, but as wrestlers must, the team forged ahead and arrived at CMS ready to begin the season. This was the Eagles first match since the beginning of December, having several meets cancelled due to poor weather, so the team was eager to compete.

The event allowed twelve athletes to compete from each school and the Eagles squad ranged in grades from a Third Former, eight Fifth Formers and three Sixth Formers. The team had wrestlers that had four years of experience to many novices. The tournament had a round-robin format and in every bracket there were four wrestlers, meaning that each of our wrestlers had three matches during the day.

Of the twelve competing, ten placed in the top three of their bracket. We had one champion, three second-place, and six third-place finishers. All of our second place finishers lost to Belmont Hill School, who ended up winning the tournament as a team and for the past few years has been one of the best wrestling teams in New England. Our team did fantastically well and it was great to see them all come together as one and cheer each other on throughout the day.

The wrestling team will have two more varsity tournaments this season, the Eaglebrook Tournament and the Fessenden Tournament, both of which are at the end of February. Now the Eagles need to turn their attention to their next match against the junior varsity of Northfield Mount Hermon, Wednesday, 1/17. NMH has arguably one of the best varsity squads in New England this year, making this a difficult meet for the Eagles; however, as the culture with the Eaglebrook wrestling program, they will work hard and not give up, just like they train each and every day. Go Eagles!