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Methuen hits the triple crown

Saturday, February, 11 By Jeff Hamrick

WEYMOUTH‑ Methuen didn’t have the most entries at the Division 1 state tournament but with three titles, the Rangers left with the most champions.

Sophomore Christian Monserrat (113 pounds), junior Paul Sughrue (126) and senior C.J. Doherty (145) each capped off four-match runs in the weight classes en route to first-place finishes yesterday at Weymouth High School. Each won for at least the second straight time. Both Monserrat and Sughrue will be gunning for their second straight All-State title in two weeks.

“It’s tough to repeat,” said Methuen coach Bill James, who was named the Division 1 coach of the year. “Doherty is a three-timer and the others are two-timers, so that’s real impressive. It’s not easy to win one, so to win that many back to back is a real credit to them. But they work hard, and they wrestled tough today.”

The one with the toughest final last night was also the one who had pinned all three of his preliminary opponents. Doherty needed only 2:28 to win those first three matches, but had a more rigorous final, defeating Richard Viruet of Springfield Central 3-1.

“I felt a little flat throughout the match, but he’s a great wrestler,” said Doherty, who defeated Viruet 11-2 earlier this year at the Methuen tournament. “For the most part I did what I wanted to do. I knew if I came out and wrestled (Viruet) like I’d been wrestling all the other kids in the tournament that I’d do fine, but I just fell flat. I didn’t wrestle as good as I know I can.”

Doherty ran his season record to 38-1 and his career mark to 162-18.

Sughrue, who had a first-round pin before a pair of decisions by a combined 20-4, dominated Greg Williams of Franklin 14-5 in his final. The junior, who is 38-0 on the season and 135-16 in his career, scored seven take downs and after five of them quickly allowed Williams to escape before taking him down yet again.

“Neutral really is my best position,” Sughrue said of the strategy. “I’m not a big fan of top or bottom, so I try to stay in neutral as much as I can ... I just have to keep working because I have bigger things coming up.”
Monserrat, who also had a first round pin, defeated Peter Robinson of St. John’s Shrewsbury 8-2 in his final to run his season mark to 33-0 and his two-year record to 85-1.

“This is basically the start of the postseason for me,” said Monserrat, whose only loss came in the finals of last year’s New England tournament “And I have a lot of tough matches coming up, so I’ll just wrestle as hard as I can. I tried to become a four-time New England champ, but I lost so my next step is to be a four-time state champ and four-time all-state champ.”

Methuen also had three other wrestlers advance. Jack Khoury took third at 160 after dropping a 3-2, triple-overtime decision in the semis to eventual runner-up Alex Liquori of Framingham. Sarith Has (120) and Scott DelRossi (182) both got dinged up in semifinal losses and did not wrestle in the consolation finals to finish sixth.

“Jack Khoury had a great tournament,” James said. “This is only his third year wrestling. He kind of came in as an unknown and lost in triple overtime but bounced back to win third place, so we’re really proud of him. Hopefully (Has and DelRossi) they’ll both be OK and ready to go next week (in the dual state tournament).”