MARBLEHEAD — The Saugus/Peabody wrestling team took care of business on the road and defeated Marblehead/Swampscott 62-16 in a Northeastern Conference match.
Saugus/Peabody won the majority of matches via pin-fall, which made coach Wayne Moda proud.
“Marblehead/Swampscott has a pretty young team, so we knew we were going to come in and do pretty well. We’ve got some gaps in our lineup that we’ve been trying to remedy at practice,” Moda said. “Our kids came out and executed and got a lot of pins.”
Winning through a pin is something Moda has been preaching to his team. That way, when wrestlers get to tournaments, they focus on getting those extra points.
“Everyone wants to take someone down and release them and be happy with a tech-fall, but I want people learning how to pin and go through pinning a guy,” Moda said. “That’s where all your extra points come from.”
There were a few highlight performances. Perhaps the biggest came from Jackson Deleidi, who won his 100th career match for Saugus/Peabody. Deleidi won via pin to earn the achievement.
“He’s grown a lot. He started as a freshman [and] probably won 15 matches in his first year. From then, he’s done his thing,” Moda said. “He’s able to keep his weight down to consistently wrestle as a lightweight his whole career. He’s having a good season.”
Marblehead/Swampscott coach Michael Stamison offered his congratulations to Deleidi.
“Congratulations to Jackson for Saugus/Peabody on his 100th win,” Stamison said. “I’ve been watching him for a long time and he’s awesome.”
Marblehead/Swampscott ended the night strong with two wins via pins from Phineas Jakious and Xavier Tejeda, who won their respective matches at 215 and 275 pounds.
The match of the night, according to Stamison, was when Colin Hart and Saugus/Peabody’s Jaden Ceac wrestled at 175 pounds, with Ceac winning narrowly.
“On our side, I think Colin Hart could have won that match at 175. That was the match of the night,” Stamison said. “Senior Phineas Jakious, at 215, took care of business and Xavier Tejeda at heavyweight is on a hot streak right now.”
Stamison pointed out that this season was always going to be about getting kids experience.
“This season is a rebuilding season. Of our lineup, I’d say half of them are first-year wrestlers. Two of them tonight, at 106 and 113, are seventh graders,” Stamison said. “It’s been tough. We were down three starters tonight. I don’t think it would have made a difference, but maybe they wouldn’t have lost via pin. Hats off to coach Wayne and his staff.”
Moda has been enjoying his group of wrestlers.
“They’re all good kids. We have a lot of young and new kids who came out this year. Our JV (junior varsity) team performed great today with all wins except for one,” he said. “Our team works hard in practice and we have three great captains who lead the team and are good examples for the younger kids.”
