NORTHFIELD — It might sound a bit crazy to hear that a wrestler with two career western Massachusetts titles already in the bag has anything more to prove. But that was precisely the way Athol High School senior Merrick Decker was feeling coming into the weekend.
Decker had a list of reasons he wanted, no, needed to win one final WMass Division III title, and following a grueling three-round match with Mt. Everett Regional High School’s Pat Fosby, the Red Raiders’ 120-pounder had his third and final WMass title. His victory was the lone WMass championship by any local wrestler, although the area did have a second-place finisher, as well as a winner at the 98-pound weight class, which is technically an exhibition class.
Decker has been arguably the area’s best pound-for-pound wrestler since he burst onto the scene as an obscure freshman four years ago and claimed his first western Mass. crown. He followed that up with another championship in his sophomore season and appeared to be well on his way toward a third title last winter when he made the finals at 120 pounds. There, he faced Hampden Charter School’s Omar Velez, and Velez hurt Decker late in the first period during the title bout by slamming him down hard on his chest. Decker, trailing 2-1 at the time, suffered an injury that he said did not allow him to lift anything over three pounds for six weeks. A torn chest muscle and damaged ribs will do that to a young man, plus make training difficult for someone who is a total devotee to the sport of wrestling.
“It was awful, it hurt to do everything,” Decker said of the injury.
But Decker worked his way back this season and came into the season as a odds-on favorite to get back to the 120 finals. He appeared headed for the top seed again but suffered a loss by decision to Fosby a week ago, relegating Decker to the No. 2 seed. As if redemption for last year’s title loss, not to mention revenge for the recent loss to Fosby, were not enough, Decker was also looking to become Athol’s all-time leader in WMass titles and career victories, two more excellent motivating factors.
“I knew the record for WMass titles at our school was two and I wasn’t going out with just two,” he said.
Knowing that points were likely going to be at a premium against Fosby, Decker wanted to get a takedown in the first period and he managed to do so with 30 seconds left on the clock, giving him a 2-0 lead. Fosby managed an escape before the end of the period and Decker went into the second period up 2-1. In the second period, Decker chose the down position and wound up getting an escape for the only point of the period, sending him to the third and final 2-minute frame with a 3-1 lead.
Fosby chose to start down in the third and managed to make it a one-point match when he scored an escape to cut the deficit to 3-2, and set up an exciting final 30 seconds. If Fosby could take Decker down, he would jump into the lead at 4-3, but Decker never got caught and wound up scoring a takedown himself when Fosby tried a desperation move in the final few seconds of the bout to give Decker an entertaining 5-2 victory.
“It was tough, he’s pretty strong and knows what he’s doing,” Decker said of Fosby. “But I knew that I was stronger and in better shape and I just had to wear him down.
“This third one is the best one,” Decker continued. “I had to work my tail off all year, especially coming back from an injury like that.”
Decker now has his sights set even higher as he advances to the State Division III Tournament, where he has not had luck in the past. As a freshman, he lost his first two matches of the tournament, then as a sophomore, he missed making weight by a fraction of a pound. Despite qualifying for the tournament last year with the second-place finish, he was unable to compete due to the injury, so Decker is not only looking to possibly medal at the meet, but to also earn his first-ever victory at a post-WMass meet.
Decker will be joined by nine other local wrestlers at the Division III state meet, which takes place Friday and Saturday at Wakefield High School. Anyone finishing in the top four earned a States berth. Fifth-place finishers serve as alternates for their weight classes and will wrestle if someone in the top four is unable to go.
The only other local wrestler to make the championship round Saturday was Decker’s teammate, Chris Waslaske, who went up against Mt. Greylock Regional High School’s Devin Pelletier, one of the best wrestlers not only in western Mass., not only the state, but all of New England in the 170 title bout. The Mt. Greylock senior is a reigning New England champion, and entered Saturday’s match with 235 career victories, so Waslaske, a sophomore making his championship debut, had his hands full, to say the least.
The first period was clearly a feeling-out process for both grapplers, who remained in the neutral position throughout until Pelletier finally made Waslaske pay for a slight error late in the period. That’s when Waslaske attempted to take Pelletier down but instead was taken down and Pelletier took a 2-0 lead into the second period. An escape and takedown moved the lead to 5-0 for Pelletier in the second before Waslaske got on the board with an escape to make it 5-1 going into the third. Waslaske got one more escape in the third period but Pelletier got a pair of takedowns and wound up with a 9-2 victory.
“I went out there and did my best, I had nothing to lose,” Waslaske said after the match. “We were trying to figure each other out in the first period and I took a bad shot and he just finished.”
Waslaske said that despite the loss he was pleased with his overall performance and excited to be moving on to the state meet.
“My sophomore year, finishing second at WMass and moving on to states and maybe placing there — it feels awesome,” he said.
The third area wrestler taking part in a title bout was diminutive Frontier Regional School eighth-grader Tanner Finch, who took on Hampshire Regional High School’s Adam Picard in the title bout at 98 pounds. Because 98 pounds is not a weight regular-season class that schools compete at, the championship is not counted toward team scores but serves as a chance for the youngest wrestlers on teams to get a chance to compete at WMass.
Finch competed at 106 pounds during the regular season but weighs in at 96, so he gave away 10 pounds in each meet. He thrived against competition more closely associated with his weight and in the finals against Picard, continually scored near falls and takedowns to wind up with a 21-5 lead following a near-fall at the end of the second period. A 15-point lead at any point during a match automatically stops the bout and awards a wrestler a win by technical fall, which gave Finch the title in his first-ever appearance at the WMass tournament.
“It was fun, it was my first time coming here so it was cool that I won,” Finch said after. “This my third time wrestling him and I pinned him both times before, but he was really good at breaking my holds today.”
One other notable victory Saturday came in the fifth-place match at 126 pounds, where Frontier’s Connor Pettis entered with 99 wins. The match may be his final varsity match ever, and he needed a victory in the fifth-place bout to hit the magic number of 100 career varsity wins. Pettis took on Granby’s Kyle Roe and pinned him in 21 seconds to earn his 100th victory. He will serve as an alternate next weekend.
The area had three third-place finishers at WMass. Franklin County Technical School’s Spencer Telega earned a 2-1 win over Taconic High School’s Dylan Burke in the third-place match at 160, and Mahar Regional School’s Ben Gilmore pinned Southwick-Tolland Regional High School’s Connor Stevens in 2:52 at 170. Athol High School’s Ryan Hurlbert also finished third at 195 pounds, pinning Taconic’s Tanner Hastings in 37 seconds.
Franklin Tech also had four wrestlers finish fourth to earn States berths. Colin Pettis suffered a pin in 3:55 to Monument Mountain Regional High School’s Sam Cormier at 120 pounds, and Chris Ludwig suffered a 16-5 loss to Dean Technical High School’s Kevin Higgins at 145. Caileb Milton dropped a 13-3 decision to Dean Tech’s Nolan Keane at 182, and Mike Mattson was pinned in 1:41 by Dean Tech’s Luis Breton at 285. Frontier’s Josiah Murry was the other local wrestler to finish fourth and qualify for states after he suffered a 7-0 loss to Monument Mountain’s Alex Leonard at 138.
Frontier’s Connor Pettis was joined by seven other area wrestlers as fifth-place finishers. All eight No. 5’s will serve as States alternates. Athol’s Jon Mahony (106), Caleb Cox (113), Mike Gray (152) and Dylan Castine (160) all won their fifth-place bouts, as did Mahar’s Todd Chaisson (138) and Miller Richardson (145). Frontier’s Miguel Olvera-Aguilera (195) also finished fifth.
Athol’s Ryan White (132) and Trevor Mousseau (182) joined Franklin Tech’s Jordan Bashaw (152) and Mahar’s Matt Herk (220) as sixth-place finishers.
Franklin Tech finished fourth as a team at the tournament, the best-ever finish by the school’s team.