Max O’Connell ended a two-year state title drought for the Cranston West wrestling team on Saturday.
It also happened to be a family title drought.
The West junior has two brothers who were state champions for the Falcons. Nick O’Connell won in 2009, while Ricondo Cole won a championship in 2010 and another in 2011, West’s most recent individual crown.
Max was thrilled to join their club in 2014.
“No more pressure,” he said with a laugh.
O’Connell was one of two medalists for the Falcons, along with sophomore Nick Almonte, who took sixth at 152. West finished 17th overall. Cranston East did not medal and finished 28th. Bishop Hendricken won its second consecutive championship with a dominant, 11-medal performance.
For O’Connell, the state tournament continued a junior-season surge. He’s been one of West’s top wrestlers since his freshman season, taking third at states that year and fifth last year as a sophomore. This year, he took a leap, dominating the regular-season competition and earning the top seed in the 138-pound weight class for states.
When the tournament got underway, he took care of business, winning four straight matches to capture the title. He beat Johnston’s Tim Tedesco 4-3 in the championship bout.
“It felt great,” O’Connell said. “It’s really unexplainable. This whole season, I’ve been busting my butt in practice, working hard every day, just for this moment. I came out confident. I had my mind set that I could go out there and win it.”
O’Connell won by tech fall over Exeter/West Greenwich’s Aaron Armitrano in his first match then won by major decision over Hendricken’s John Arruda in the quarterfinals. In Saturday morning’s semifinal, he edged Ponaganset’s Jarrett Clarke 5-4.
That set up the championship match-up with Tedesco, a familiar foe. O’Connell had already wrestled Tedesco three times this season, and while he won every time, the matches were getting closer and closer. In a regular-season match just two weeks prior, O’Connell needed double overtime to win.
“He’s a good kid and he works hard,” O’Connell said of Tedesco. “He’s a good kid to wrestle. We worked hard all week on the things I could do to wrestle my best. I just had fun out here.”
The finals match wasn’t fun at the outset. After a scoreless first period, Tedesco started on bottom in the second period and reversed O’Connell to take a 2-0 lead. O’Connell escaped soon after but couldn’t get a takedown and trailed 2-1 heading into the final two minutes.
“Even though he scored first, I just kept going,” O’Connell said. “I kept pushing, kept pushing.”
O’Connell started on bottom in the third period and got up multiple times only to see Tedesco hold onto an ankle. After ending up out of bounds and restarting several times, O’Connell finally drew a stalling call on Tedesco to tie the match.
In an effort to set up takedown points, Tedesco let O’Connell escape to get to neutral, which put O’Connell ahead 3-2. In a tie-up soon after, Tedesco was called for unnecessary roughness on a blow to O’Connell’s head. That gave O’Connell another point and a 4-2 lead. He avoided a takedown from there and then celebrated.
“We always say, ‘One point at a time,’” said West head coach Tim Almonte. “That’s what he did. He had a great two days. He wrestled hard. Once he shook some of the nerves off, he went and pulled it off.”
O’Connell will now make his second trip to the New England championships. He won two matches there as a freshman.
Joining O’Connell as a medalist was Nick Almonte, head coach Tim Almonte’s son. Nick beat Hendricken’s Steve Johnson 5-3 in his first match before falling to EWG’s Christian LaBrie in the quarterfinals. LaBrie would go on to win his third state title.
Almonte came back strong after the loss, pinning East Greenwich’s Dan O’Hara and beating Johnston’s Jesse Ribezzo 4-3 to get into medal contention. He lost his consolation semifinal match 1-0 to Tolman’s Darius Harrison, which dropped him to the fifth-place bout. There, he ran into Cumberland standout Nick Tribelli, who beat him 10-0.
Still, it was a strong tournament.
“Nick really wrestled his butt off,” Tim Almonte said. “He got out of his shell and he wrestled hard.”
Tyler Gomez and Ryan Gomez finished one round short of the medals after winning three matches each. For both, their only losses were to eventual place-winners.
Wrestling at 120, Tyler Gomez opened with a 6-0 win over East Greenwich’s Austin Sullivan before a second-round loss to Cumberland’s Cody Beaudette, who went on to take third. After wins over Abel Arias of Hope and Brodie Murphy of Coventry, Gomez lost 5-2 in consolation round five to Westerly’s Ian Rose, the eventual fifth-place medalist.
At 132, Ryan Gomez pinned his first two opponents for a spot in the quarterfinals before a loss to Cumberland’s Kris Nordby, who ended up taking fourth. Gomez fought back with a win by major decision over Lincoln’s Alex DaSilva but then ran into Warwick Vets junior Davin Lourenco, the top seed, who edged him 11-8. Lourenco went on to take third.
West’s Brandon Cardinal also made the quarterfinals at 182 before a loss to La Salle’s Onassis Valerio, the fifth-place medalist. Cardinal was bounced by Pilgrim’s Griffin Potter in the consolation bracket.
Armand Vaziri also won a match for West, taking a consolation bout at 145 in a tiebreaker over West Warwick’s Luis Salazar.
Dario Castillo, Jesse Chan, Noah James, Rip Cooper, Matt Roy, Evan Deluty, Elija Hernandez and Nick James also competed for the Falcons.
“We got 17th, but that’s alright,” Tim Almonte said. “Growing year. Next year, we’ll come back and we’ll score better.”
After two top-six finishes at the Division II championships, Cranston East missed out on the medal round at states. Steven Ferrazzano, Greg Scott and Kenny Irizarry each won a match for East.
At 160, Ferrazzano beat Ponaganset’s Hayden Bryant 3-1 in his first consolation bout before winning by forfeit in round three. He then lost to South Kingstown’s Reilly McGreen. At 220, Scott dropped his first match to Warwick Vets’ Aaron Hurst, the fifth-place medalist, before winning by pin over Lincoln’s Valmore Dumont in his first consolation match. In the next round, South Kingstown’s Jake Pare, the fourth-place medalist, beat Scott in the ultimate tiebreaker round. Irizarry, wrestling at 285, lost his first match 4-1 to North Providence’s Anthony Izzi. He rebounded to beat East Providence’s Corey Cinquegrana 8-1 before Cumberland’s Matt Reilly sent him home with a pin in consolation round three.
Jared Sajche-Meza and Jorge Hernandez also wrestled for East.