Three titles, third place for TG at D-II meet

Posted 2/25/14

Toll Gate’s Max Procopio, Aaron Travers and Ed Pierce won individual titles and the Titans placed third overall at the Division II Wrestling Championship this past weekend at Ponaganset High …

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Three titles, third place for TG at D-II meet

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Toll Gate’s Max Procopio, Aaron Travers and Ed Pierce won individual titles and the Titans placed third overall at the Division II Wrestling Championship this past weekend at Ponaganset High School. Exeter/West Greenwich won the team title with 195.5 points, Narragansett was second at 180 and the Titans finished with 152. Pilgrim won three medals and finished 10th.

Procopio, wrestling at 138, pinned Burrillville’s Andrew Braddock and West Warwick’s Andrew Skorski for a spot in the finals, where he matched up with Ponaganset’s Jarrett Clarke. Fifty-three seconds into the match, Clarke had to default due to injury, giving Procopio the title.

At 145, Travers marched into the finals with a pin of Narragansett’s Samuel Kershaw and a 5-2 victory over Barrington standout Samuel Lundsten. In the championship match, Travers edged Ponaganset’s Tyler Noury 3-2 to win the title. Travers was a runner-up at last year’s Division II tournament.

Pierce added Toll Gate’s third title. Wrestling at 195, the junior pinned Barrington’s Luke Turco in his first match and beat West Warwick’s Juan Urena 9-6 in the semifinals. In the title bout, Pierce beat Burrillville’s Nicholas Samek 4-2. Like Travers, Pierce was also a runner-up last year.

In addition to the first-place medals, the Titans had five other place-winners. Joe Brosnahan made the finals at 160 before losing to EWG star and defending state champ Andrew LaBrie. Dave Navilliat was also a runner-up after a loss to Ponaganset’s Joshua Noury in the finals at 170. Zach Caldarone gave the Titans a fourth-place finish at 126, John DiGiuseppe finished fifth at 152, and Tim Warner took fifth at 285.

The third-place team finish was the second in a row for the Titans, who were behind EWG and Narragansett last year as well. EWG won 10 medals, with three first-place finishes.

For Pilgrim, seniors Oluiwaseun Akinnusotu and Mike Turchetta led the way. Akinnusotu lost his second match of the tournament to eventual champion Noury at 170, but won five matches in a row to grab a third-place medal. He beat Nicholas Harvey 6-5 in a tiebreaker to grab third. Turchetta lost in the semis at 195 but bounced back to win two matches in a row. He beat West Warwick’s Urena for third.

Griffin Potter also medalled for the Pats, taking fifth at 182.

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