Celebrating Excellence: 29 Wrestlers With New England Ties Earn All-American Honors

Apr 10, 2024
5 min read

Updated: Apr 11, 2024

This past weekend as the waves were crashing on Virginia Beach, thousands of wrestlers–more than 450 from New England–competed to earn the elusive NHSCA All-American Honors.

New England represented well down south. Looking at the numbers, Connecticut and Massachusetts led the way each placing 10 on the podium. Rhode Island, not far behind, placed eight, and Maine had a lone All-American.

Girls

Four girls from the region made their way to the podium. Choate Rosemary Hall’s Calli Gilchrist won her second straight NHSCA title at 120lbs (last year’s was at 114). Gilchrist went 6-0 on the weekend with three pins.

ree — Connecticut's Rylee Donohue looks for a fall in her first match

Maddie Ripley from Maine placed third at 107lbs She went 6-1 with her lone loss coming in the semis 5-4 to the eventual champion Mariah Mills from Florida.

Massachusetts had two girls make the podium, the most of any New England state. Ashland’s Nora Quitt led the charge placing third. And like Ripley, her only loss came to the eventual champion in the semi-finals. Meghan Weibe from Sharon, MA took 4th at 165lbs going 4-2 in the tournament earning her first All-American Honors.

Boys

Freshmen

The future is about as bright as it can be for the region. Eleven freshmen found the podium; Connecticut led the way with five freshman All-Americans. Max Konopka (Simsbury, CT), continuing his dominance, won the 190lb. final via a first-period pin.

Old Lyme’s Chase Catalano, who placed second at the CT State open but did not place at New Englands, came in at the eight spot on the All-American Podium.

Two Newtown freshmen who were middle school All-Americans last year earned their first high school honors. Jake Maddox (150) and Antonio Arguello (145) went a combined 10-5 together with Maddox taking 7th place and Arguello taking 6th.

ree — Newtown Freshman Jake Maddox gets ready to attack his opponent

Greens Farms Academy had an All-American in top-100 ranked freshmen Brighton Karvoski who went 5-2 at 113lbs. to finish fourth in the nation.

Two light heavyweight freshmen from the Bay State also made the podium. At 220lbs. Max Thomas (Gloucester, MA) and Tommy Osborne (Andover, MA) both found themselves in the 5th place match with a guaranteed podium spot. Thomas would get the fall in the second period to win the 5th place match leaving Osborne in 6th.

And two Ponaganset, RI wrestlers placed in the freshmen division. Cole Lemovitz (106lbs.) took 8th place while teammate Carnell “Nelly” Davis took second at 138lbs. These two combined went 10-4 this past weekend.

Myles Burroughs (Northfield Mt. Hermon, MA) also made the bronze medal match at 132lbs. Burroughs is from New Jersey but moved to Rhode Island and trains at Mayo Quanchi

Sophomores

Three true New England sophomores and one with ties to the region placed. Massachusetts had a great showing in this division with Andover’s Yandel Morales going 6-2 at 120lbs to place 4th and Matt Harrold (Haverhill, MA) went 4-2 to place 7th at 220lbs. For both, this their second All-American honors.

ree — MA's Matt Harrold gets set to face off

Kaz Morosetti (North Kingstown, RI) placed last year as a freshman and did it again as a sophomore, placing 6th at 285lbs.

Also at 285lbs., Northfield Mt. Hermon (MA)’s Jimmy Bechter won the tournament after a close no-takedown call at the buzzer. Bechter, however, wrestled for his home state of Ohio.

Juniors

Two wrestlers from New England made the finals in the junior division, Charles Weidman (Xavier, CT) lost a close 5-0 decision to Wyatt Bush of Virginia. Musa Tamaradze from Massachusetts had a much closer match in the finals, but managed to take the win in overtime.

2x NHSCA National Champion Thomas Brown (Chelmsford, MA) was upset in the 285lbs. quarter finals, snapping his 117-match win streak. Brown, however, was not deterred, he battled back and took third, outsourcing his opponents 20-2 in his final four matches.

ree — Xavier's Charles Weidman controls the top in his semifinals match

Returning finalist Sidney Tildsley (Shawsheen Tech, MA) competed at 132lbs. this year and took 5th place. Tildsley is now a 3x All-American having placed 7th his freshman year.

Rhode Island’s lone All-American was a pleasant surprise. Andrew McCarthey (Mt. Hope, RI), a top-10 wrestler in New England, took his wrestling to new heights on the national stage. He went 5-3 on the weekend–good enough to take 8th place at 138lbs. and earn All-American honors.

Seniors

Six seniors from New England made the podium and half of them made it to the finals. Raekwon Shabazz (Xavier, CT) had a 2-1 decisive decision to win his second straight NHSCA title at 113. His club teammate Gabe Bouyssou (Scituate, RI) had a tough match against Illinois State Champ and NC State commit Jaydon Robinson at 145 lbs. But with two takedowns and a few escapes, Bouyssou won the match 8-6, giving him his second straight title as well.

Johnson & Wales commit, 2x All-American, and top-10 P4P wrestler in New England Peyton Ellis took on a tough foe in Iowa commit Keyan Hernandez from Montana in the 126 final. While Ellis was able to get a reversal in the final 20 seconds, there just wasn’t enough time for the Coventry, RI wrestler to mount a comeback. He lost 5-3.

ree — Rhode Island wrestler Peyton Ellis gauges his distance for an attack

Another Newtown wrestler makes the podium, this time its 160lbs senior Williams College commit Fisher Stites, the third wrestler from Newton, CT to make the podium, won his first three matches to make the quarter finals and ended up taking 8th place.

Spencer Fine (Bishop Hendricken, RI), another multiyear All-American from Rhode Island, has found the podium the last three years in a row. Only in his freshman year Fine was one win away from placing. The high school senior, looking to wrestle at Columbia University in the fall, placed 5th at 182lbs.

Jerameel Vasquez from Hampden-Charter East was Massachusetts' lone All-American senior. Vasquez had an impressive 6-2 showing, good enough to place 5th at 220lbs.

EVERY ‘BLOOD ROUNDER’ FROM NEW ENGLAND

The blood round is a term used by wrestlers to refer to the round in a tournament in which the winners solidify placement and the losers are eliminated.

Girls

114: Sara McLaughlin (Choate Rosemary Hall, CT)

126: Lina Rodriguez (Norwalk, CT)

132: Jillian Glaski (Mt. Anthony Union, VT)

165: Emma Leonice (Hanover, MA)

185: Kayli Morris (Platt, CT)

235: Samantha Rabkin (Sharon, MA)

Boys

Freshmen

120: Jeremey McGrath (Greens Farms Academy, CT)

132: Colby Houle (CT) (Northfield Mt. Hermon, MA)

152: Vincent Rivera (Xavier, CT)