Rockets Review: Wrestlers Take Belmont Tournament

Wrestlers Take Belmont Tourney, Beat Weymouth! Teams get key BSC Wins!

Below is Wrestling info from Head Coach Paul Ahern:

 The Needham High School Wrestling Team topped off a very successful week by taking the team title at the 16 team Belmont Invitational. The Rockets, who had beaten Bay State League Rival, Weymouth, 61-16 earlier in the week, placed 10 wrestlers at Belmont.

Against Weymouth, The Rockets got pin points from Sophomore Dan Goldstein, Freshman Lucas Goldman, Senior Captains Mark Carroll and Mikhail Khibkin, Juniors Zach Goldman and Ben Glickman, and first-year varsity Seniors Aten Miles, Steve Cromp and Chris Ptak.  Senior Captain Islam Baiev earned a hard-fought 11-7 victory, while Tak Hirayama pulled out an 11-0 major decision over his Wildcat opponent.

At the Belmont Tournament, without the services of several potential point-earners, NHS had to bump their line-up and send newer wrestlers into the mix. First year wrestler, Senior Andrew Wise came up big for the Rockets, pulling out a 3-1 win in the first round and then a pin to advance him to the semis. Wise finished with a sixth place on the day. Cromp and Ptak once again turned out great performances, both earning important pin points as they worked their way to the podium with a fourth place finish for Cromp and a sixth for Ptak.

Also, in the upperweights, Aten Miles notched a couple of big pin victories, helping the Rockets distance themselves from second place Wakefield and third-place East Providence, RI.  

"These upper weights came through for us," said Coach Ahern, "Either undersized or with little experience, they stepped up and if you look at the team scores, they provided the margin of victory for us."

Down low, Dan Goldstein went 4-1 on the day, pulling out two tough matches later in the day, including an overtime win to take an impressive third.  Hirayama and Senior Brett Cohen also fought through tough brackets to find their way to the podium: Hirayama took  fourth, falling just short in his third place bout, and Cohen taking  sixth.

Needham had four finalists: Carroll, Khibkin, Zach Goldman and Baiev.  Baiev and Goldman both dropped their finals matches to top-ranked opponents, but churned out dominating early round performances, both pinning in their semi-final bouts. Carroll and Khibkin walked away with titles: Carroll, who had come into the tournament seeded below his opponent, dominated the highly ranked wrestler, 9-4. While Khibkin jumped out to an early lead before pinning his fellow finalist early in the second period.

The Rockets moved to 6-3 on the year; 2-1 in the Bay State League.  This week NHS Wrestling travels to Framingham on Wednesday for a BSL showdown, and then on Saturday they head north for The Woburn Invitational.

Ski Team Update

The New Year also saw the Boys & Girls Ski Teams each finish 2nd in Ski East action on Wednesday at Blue Hills and the Gymnastics Team move to 2-0 on Friday, with a 125.55-110.70 win over Brookline.  Girls and Boys Basketball were in action Friday as well, with both teams getting important BSC wins over Framingham, with the Girls on the road and the Boys at home.  Capping off BSC play for the week, Girls Ice Hockey came up with a big 4-0 win over BSC rival Weymouth on Saturday night at Babson.

For information about the Girls and Boys Indoor Track Teams, and the meet they took place in on Sunday, please check out the NHS Track Blog at http://www.needhamrunning.blogspot.com

Athletic Events Schedule 1/7-1/13

Home Varsity Events (All other Home HS Events)Away Varsity Events (All other Away HS Events)Home Night Varsity Games

Monday, January 14th
ANTI- BULLYING/HAZING, CONCUSSION MGT, CHEMICAL HEALTH PRESENTATION
Mandatory for all Winter Athletes
2:45pm - NHS A Gym

GO ROCKETS!!!

For Needham Athletics program updates and links, and to follow the NHS teams through the postseason, please visit http://nhs.needham.k12.ma.us/athletics and follow on Twitter:@NHSRockets