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Knight wrestlers make it 3 straight state dual meet titles

Tuesday, February, 21 By Chuck Frye
Correspondent

LOWELL — On the morning of the Division 2 dual-meet final four, it was hard to imagine that anybody was doing more than sleeping off the effects from a couple of hard-fought bouts the night before and mentally preparing for the title runs ahead.

Think again.

Exhibiting the team-first attitude that already created two state team championships, North Andover paved the road to No. 3 by joining together once again.

"We had a drill session (yesterday) morning, and I don't know that a lot of other teams were doing that," Danielle Coughlin said. "We went bowling at (Haverhill's) Academy Lanes ... we were with the team all day, getting focused."

Coughlin laughed when asked how she did at Academy, saying, "I didn't win, but I'm not that great of a bowler," but the Knights had the last laugh as they ran the table by beating Natick 47-18 in the semis and Winchester 35-25 for the title.

"That's why we win, the team culture is important," said North Andover head coach Carl Cincotta. "I won't and never will just coach for individuals, because the weakest and the worst kid on the team is just as important as the state champ. It's very important that every kid feels that they are a part of something. That's why our whole team is here today."

With all the athletes used this weekend, it truly was a team win, but Coughlin was the sparkplug.

Bumping up to 113 pounds in the semis due to a Natick forfeit, Coughlin took a dominating 6-0 victory over Mark Gutierrez. And with the motivation of a less-than-satisfactory performance in the individual tourney, she moved back to 106 and pinned Winchester's Jordan Darby with 15 seconds left in the first period.

"I wrestled him at sectionals and I was supposed to pin him and I didn't," Coughlin explained. "So I went out there with that attitude and had to get it done for my team."

From there, the Knights' middleweights put the hammer down.

Starting with freshman Fritz Hoehn at 138, North Andover virtually owned the mat until Ryan Neals locked up both the semis and the finals with victories at 182.

The Knights won 10 of those 12 bouts yesterday.

"That was a big difference, we kept pounding away with the wins and we've been doing it all year," Cincotta said. "Those middle guys are tough for us."

"It's a source of pride big-time," said 145-pounder Brad Drover. "The middleweights are a big key."

"Everyone's going to remember what team won a championship, but not everyone's going to remember the individual that won a weight class in ... 1986," said Neals, whose pin over Alexe Restivo-Lage clinched the semifinals, and 18-3 technical fall over Ryan Kelley locked up the three-peat. "So I think it's much better to win as a team."

With the win, Cincotta could finally concede something about his team.

"Motivation-wise, at that point before (yesterday), we hadn't won anything. We had a great season, all these champions (in other tourneys), everything, but we hadn't won anything until now, and now we're champs."

And Neals relished his role in North Andover's title trifecta.

"I'm proud because I've won all three of my matches in the finals," he said. "I'm just happy I could wrestle my best and win for the team."