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Senior National Wrestling: Dearden advances to Round of 16

Saturday, March, 29 By Dave Dyer
Staff writer

Three-time New England champion Trevor Dearden of Salem got off to a terrific start at the National High School Senior Championships yesterday.

Dearden advanced to the round of 16 with two major decisions at 125 pounds. He defeated Utah's Nick Flores 10-1 in his first match and then overwhelmed four-time Wisconsin state champion Bobby Wunnicke 16-4.

Dearden, now 46-2, will face New Jersey's Matt Fusco this morning and, if he prevails, take on the winner of Ohio's Danny Genetin and California's Angel Garcia in the quarterfinals.

Two Methuen wrestlers won their first matches. New England champ John Sughrue won a 12-3 major decision in his 130-pound opener but then lost a tough 3-1 overtime decision to New Jersey's Cody Fobes | his first loss of the season.

Rangers' teammate Andrik Cruz won his 145-pound opener, 10-8 in overtime over Nick Tiberi of Delaware but fell to Ohio's Caleb Messerall 6-3 in the next round. Sughrue and Cruz dropped to the consolation bracket.

Two Greater Lawrence Tech seniors dropped into the consolation bracket with first-round setbacks. Franchesco Ortiz dropped a 9-2 decision to South Dakota's Aaron Pickiel at 119 pounds and 152-pounder Chris DelaRosa fell 6-5 to Alabama's Alec Williams.

Joining Dearden in this morning's round of 16 from the Merrimack Valley Conference was Chelmsford's Tim Rich, who won 10-6 and 12-0 decisions at 135 pounds. Two other New England wrestlers in the round of 16 are both from Vermont | Mt. Anthony's Scott Legacy at 130 and Mount Mansfield's Robert Hamlin at 171.

New York holds the lead among states with 77 points followed closely by New Jersey (76 <1/2>) and Michigan (75).

In the Junior Nationals held earlier, Greater Lawrence 112-pounder Miguel Guzman lost his first match 4-2 and then split a pair in the consolation bracket while, in the Freshman Nationals, Greater Lawrence 103-pounder Matt Buco won his first match before dropping a pair in the consolation bracket.