DANVERS — With a clean sweep of a quad meet against Saugus/Peabody, Essex Tech/Masconomet and Maimonides Monday afternoon, St. John’s Prep wrestling coach Manny Costa became the first coach in state history to reach 800 career wins. The Eagles defeated Maimonides 24-0, beat Saugus/Peabody 57-3 and took down Essex Tech/Masconomet 60-16.
“Number 800 is definitely appreciated, but I’m 0-0 as a wrestler — it’s the wrestlers who have done the work and won the meets,” said Costa, a Peabody police officer. “I appreciate all who have wrestled at St. John’s Prep and I appreciate all of their efforts over 32 years. I want to give special thanks to Steve Ring, who got me to coach and whose son was my first state champion (1992), and also to Jim O’Leary for being my boss for 30 years and for believing in me.”
A Peabody native who graduated from Peabody High in 1983, Costa has been at the helm of the Prep program since 1990 and has coached 33 individual state champions in that time. He’s had 88 Academic All-Americans in that time, and the Eagles captured their first Division 1 dual meet state championship last June after capping off a 17-0 season. As it stands today, Costa’s career record is 801-148-6.
He was inducted into the Massachusetts Interscholastic Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2010, the New England Council Hall of Fame in 2011 and the St. John’s Prep Hall of Fame in 2014. The Massachusetts Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame honored Costa with its Lifetime Service Award in 2018.
As for the action in Monday’s quad meet, nine wrestlers went a perfect 3-0 in their matches to help the Prep capture the win. Unbeaten wrestlers were Braedon Goes (106 pounds), Alex Schaeublin (113), Tyler Knox (126), Adam Schaeublin (138), Rawson Iwanicki (152), Matt Mitchell (170), Dylan Greenstein (195), Jack Blizard (220) and Charlie Smith (285).
St. John’s Prep (23-0) hosts Xaverian in a Catholic Conference dual meet Wednesday (6).
