The Bishop Hendricken wrestling team proved why it’s the defending state champion on Thursday night – continuing to dominate as it has all season long.

The Hawks held off previously 6-3 Cranston West, 57-6, to move to a perfect 12-0 on the season.

West got individual wins from Ryan Gomez at 138 and Max O’Connell, the defending state champion at 145.

Other than that, though, Hendricken defended its home gym without a blemish, winning the other 10 matches of the meet.

“They have depth,” West coach Tim Almonte said. “We had a couple of wins, but I thought that we’d pull out a couple of more. They’re a tough team and hopefully we’ll get better.”

Hendricken started off the meet with five-straight 6-0 individual wins – Cam Nappi at 106, Nick Celico at 113, Devin Rivet at 120, Dylan DiSano at 126 and Jon Celico at 132.

Hendricken has been able to continue its dominance this season because some younger guys have stepped up. The early 30-0 lead built by the Hawks was due, largely, to three freshmen.

Nappi, Rivet and DiSano, all freshmen, have taken on the responsibility of being regulars in the Hawks’ lineup.

Not only are they freshmen starters, but they wrestle in three of the first four weight classes. Because of this, they are responsible for the way that the team starts their meets.

Hendricken head coach Kevin Hennessey has been impressed with the way that the freshmen have settled in, as he doesn’t typically have this many first-year wrestles in his lineup.

“The younger guys have played an important role,” Hennessey said. “We have three freshmen in the lineup. We usually don’t have freshmen in the lineup, but this year we have three and they’re contributing on a regular basis. We have a good balance of different ages, so the future looks bright.”

From there, however, the Falcons took the next two weight classes.

Gomez took a 3-0 win over Hendricken’s Matt Jacobsen after a long match, before O’Connell had a similar match, grinding out a 3-0 win over Hawks’ senior Jon Arruda.

“(Jacobsen) beat Gomez last year and he came back and beat him this year,” Almonte said. “We’ll see what happens, maybe (Gomez and O’Connell) will do something in the states.”

The Hawks would bounce back, though.

Anthony DiMauro edged West’s Nick Almonte, 3-0, at 152, before Lewis Stewart, Stevie Johnson, Zack O’Connor and Frank Cole won matches for the Hawks down the stretch.

West didn’t have wrestlers at the 182 and 195-pound weight classes, leaving the final score at 57-6.

The dual meet divisional tournaments have been cancelled for this weekend, as the league ruled that because of the weather, they would just hold the state tournaments on Feb. 27-28 at the Providence Career and Technical Academy.

The Falcons are set to host a quad meet on Tuesday night at 5 p.m. with La Salle, East Providence and North Kingstown. West will look to cement itself in the top half of the standings in Division I-A, as the Rams, Skippers and Townies currently occupy the final three spots in the standings in the subdivision.

The Hawks have their biggest dual meet of the season on Wednesday, as they’re set to host 13-1 Cumberland at 7 p.m. at Pepin Gymnasium. The Hawks and Clippers have been at the top of the standings all season long, which should make for a highly competitive meet to determine the champion for the dual meet season.

“We’re going to match-up really well with them,” Hennessey said of his upcoming meet with Cumberland. “I’ve been watching them and I’m sure they know that. They’ve probably been watching us too. Coach Gordon is a great coach, so whenever you wrestle them, you have to be ready to go.”