DANVERS — The Saugus-Peabody wrestling team tallied 93.5 points and finished ninth out of 14 teams in Saturday’s MIAA Division 1 North Wrestling Championship. Host St. John’s Prep won the team title with 269.5 points. Better yet, Eagles’ Coach Ryan Harding won Coach of the Year for the North Section.
St. John’s Prep winners included Brandon Goes (126), Domenico Ternullo (157), James Lally (144), and Alex Bajoras (285). Vince Bilotti (190), Will Lavallee (150), Graham Conway (113), and Baden Dormer (132) finished runner-up in their respective weight classes.
Shawsheen Tech was runner-up with 231.5 points, while Central Catholic finished third with 198.5 points.
Saugus-Peabody co-captains Mike Maraio (150) and Max LoRusso (144) topped the team with third-place finishes.
LoRusso, seeded fifth, opened with a 28-second pin over Haverhill’s Brett Walters in the round of 16, then defeated No. 4 Noah Beshara (Methuen), 11-8, in the quarterfinals. He lost to top-seeded Lally (St. John’s Prep) in the semifinals, 18-3. LoRusso scored a 1:38 pin win over No. 3 Tristan Gold (Beverly) in the consolation semifinals, then clinched third place with a 13-10 win over Beshara.
After a bye in the round of 16, Maraio, the No. 5 seed, defeated No. 4 Ivan Sanchez (Methuen), 16-1. After being pinned (1:57) in the semifinals by top-seeded James Tildsley (Shawsheen), he stayed alive with a 10-0 major decision over No. 7 Charles Tedeschi Jr. (Andover), then upset No. 2 Shane Shugrue (Central Catholic) via pin win in 1:51 in the third-place match.
Landon Rodriguez (132) finished fourth. He lost in 53 seconds to top-seeded Yandel Morales (Andover). After a bye in the first round of the consolation bracket, he then won three straight consolation matches. He defeated Travis McDonald (Essex Tech-Masconomet) in 1:49, Michael McCormick (Methuen) in 1:42, then Domenic Armano (Lawrence) in a 19-9 major decision in the consolation semifinals to advance to the match for third place, in which he lost a 7-0 major decision to Aiden Pinental (Shawsheen).
No. 6 Jackson Deleidi (120) and No. 6 Justin Bremberg (157) helped the cause with fifth-place finishes.
Bremberg defeated Jose Lemus (Lawrence) in a 3:10 pin, then fell to No. 2 Quinn Carbone (Shawsheen) via a 12-4 major decision. He defeated Matthew Seibert (North Andover) in a 47-second pin in the consolation round of 8, then defeated Camden O’Donnell (Haverhill) by a 2:53 pin in the consolation round of 4. After losing to top-seeded Caden Smith (Central Catholic), 16-1, he clinched fifth place with a forfeit win over Carbone.
After a first-round bye, Deleidi lost a 3-2 thriller to No. 3 Izaiah Santiago (Central Catholic) in the quarterfinals. After defeating Aiden Tabi (Methuen) in a 3:04 pin in the consolation round of 8 and Tristan Kasiavelon (Andover) in a 4:35 pin in the consolation round of four, he fell in the semifinals to No. 5 Brayden Pouliot (Beverly) in a 1:50 pin. He rebounded to take the fifth-place match in an 11-4 decision over No. 4 Ben Schumacher (St. John’s Prep).
Lukas Frondiulis (138) and Evan Johnson (175) won two matches apiece, while Camdyn Lanning (113) and Cesar Cruz (165) won one match apiece.
