Highlights of the 2005-2006 Season

Click here for the 2005-06 Team Roster

For individual match results, click on the name of the school underlined

The following is a chronology of the 2005-6 season which produced a record
of 20-4, the first 20 win season in the history of Exeter Wrestling.

 

April 2, 2006: Sadiq Okocha was selected by the Boston Globe All-Scholastic Committee for All-Scholastic honors for the great season he had this year. Sadiq, a senior, began the season with a 3-2 record. He then went on to win his next 17 dual meet contests to earn a record of 20-2 entering the end-of-season tournaments. He was first in the Class A Tournament and also first at the New England Prep School Champiuonships.

March 3-4, 2006: The New England Prep School Championships were held at the Brooks School. This is a tough tournament, first because everyone attending has placed fourth or better in his regional tournament (or has a winning record better than .667). Second, it is the end of the season and many of the participants are looking beyond to spring sports or vacation. It is hard for some to stay focused. However, with the spirit of the previous weekend still residing within them, the five seniors led a team of nine qualifiers into the Brooks School gymnasium. After all the wrestling was done, Exeter placed 3rd out of 44 school represented. Loomis Chafee(first) and Trinity Pawling(second) were comfortably out in front by the final round while a battle was still going on for 3rd between PEA(94.5), Belmont Hill.(92.5) and Brooks(84). Several other thought-to-be challengers had already faded. By the end of the finals for 1st, 3rd and 5th, Exeter had won a first - Sadiq Okochu at 130, two thirds - Jarrett Matlock at 145 and Casey Sullivan at 215, a fourth - James Gettinger at 140 and two fifths - Jackson Salovaara at 152 and Nate Allukian at 189. With additional points earlier from Peter Lam and Roscoe Wetlaufer along with a good effort from Tyler Page, the team ended the day comfortably in third place.

February 24-25, 2006: The five seniors on the team, Sadiq Okochu, Jarrett Matlock, James Gettinger, Nate Allukian and Casey Sullivan made the journey to Lehigh to the Prep School Nationals. They returned with two All-Americans - Nate Allukian and Casey Sullivan, both 5-2 for the tournament and both placing 7th. Nate had perhaps the best day losing to the number 1 seed and the number three. James and Sadiq each wound up 2-2 and although Jarrett wrestled well against stiff competition, he fell winless.

February 18, 2006: The New England Class A Championships(for brackets, click on underlined words and then select Athletics menu) were held at the Hyde School. A total of 11 Exeter wrestlers contributed points to the team score. It all began with Prep and first-year wrestler winning his first match 15-5 to garner 5 points for the team since his victory followed a bye. Although he wasn't able to place, others did. At 119 Peter Lam placed 3rd, losing his only match to the eventual winner in the quarterfinals. Sadiq Okochu, one of our two champions, dominated his opponents with two pins and two major decisions. At 135, Spenser Logan went 3-2 to place 5th. This was followed by two second place finishes by two of the seniors that the team as come to rely on all year. James Gettinger placed 2nd at 140 and Jarrett Matlock placed 2nd at 145. Having no entrant at 152, the team next garnered points from two fourth place finishes by Uppers Jackson Salovaara at 160 and Roscoe Wetlaufer at 171. 189saw Nate Allukian place 2nd and then Jason Orloff, wrestling up a weight, placed 6th at 215. At this point in the final round, we trailed NMH by 2.5 points for second. It took a win by Captain Casey Sullivan in the final match of the night to give us the final four points and also place us second with 202 points ahead of NMH with 200.5. It was a great day for the Big Red team, which had been counted out by many around the league last December.

February 15, 2006: The final dual meet of the season took place in the old gym at PEA against Andover on Wednesday afternoon. Andover came into the meet ranked 3rd among the Class A schools. The match began at heavyweight and Jason Orloff, who stepped up and in for Mike Tetler who was been injured most of the season, pinned his opponent in 1:43 of the first period to get us off to a good start. The match then went to 103 and in the next six matches, Exeter and Andover split wins by Page(103) and Lam(119), picking up a pin each and Okochu winning when his Andover opponent was disqualified. A hard-fought match ensued at 140 with James Gettinger pinning his opponent with four seconds left to give Exeter a 30-16 lead. Jarrett Matlock also had a tough match and trailed 1-2 late in the third period. He then took his opponent down with seconds to go to win 3-2 and put the team score at 33-16. Although Exeter lost at 152 and 160 against two of Andover's strongest wrestlers, the trio of Wetlaufer, Allukian and Sullivan, who have been so dependable all year, each put their opponent away to make the final score 48-25. Captain Casey closed out his four year dual meet career at Exeter with a pin over Andover's highly touted Serafino in 1:19 of the second period.

February 11, 2006: Another good Saturday, this time at home. Exeter hosted three teams and came away with two wins and a loss. In the first match, Exeter prevailed over a weaker Deerfield team 61-13 loosing only 3 matches. The second opponent was a tough NMH team that was ranked 4th ahead of Exeter's 5th place standing in the latest Class A news.. The match began at 112 and victories went back and forth until Exeter put together a string of four pins, Spencer (135), Gettinger(140), Negroponte(145) and Matlock(152). After winning three of the next four, Exeter forfeited at Heavyweight to garner a 47-22 win. The final match against Loomis-Chafee was an exciting one. Loomis has been ranked number 1 in the Class A league virtually all year. Beginning at 119, Exeter lost three matches and was down 0-15. Okocha(135) and Gettinger(140) pinned their respective opponents and thus made the score 12-15. After three losses made the score 12-32, Exeter won three of the next four with Wetlaufer(171), Allukian(189) and Sullivan(275) picking up wins. Returning to the beginning weights, Tyler Page(103) won a decision making the score 30-35 but Poon(112) ran into a more experienced wrestler and lost. Thus the final score was 30-41.

February 4, 2006: Exeter traveled to Marion, Massachusetts Saturday and returned home with two nice wins under its belt. In the league match with Tabor, so important for Class A seedings, Exeter managed to hold on and win against Tabor 36-31. The match began with a Tabor pin at 112 which was then equalized by Peter Lam at 119 tying the score. Tabor countered by pinning at 125, but Alex Chen, wrestling for Sidiq Okocha at 130, won a major decision and Logan Spencer then won at 135 to put the Exeter team ahead to stay. Although Tabor tied things up at 160, they were not able to gain the lead back as Exeter won 8 of 14 matches, including a pin by Roscoe Wetlaufer at 171 over one of the highly touted McCarthy brothers.. Another exciting match occurred at 145 where Jared Matlock won in overtime 5-3. Majors by Jason Orloff and Casey Sullivan helped seal the victory. In the second match, Exeter overpowered Roxbury Latin 46-33. Exeter again won 8 matches, 6 by falls to bring home the second victory of the day.

February 1, 2006: Exeter went on the road again, this time to Milton Academy. They came away with a win, 49-17. Exeter began with a pin at 103 and a tech fall at 112. Although they lost the next two, making the score 11-9, that would be the closest Milton would come as Exeter won 8 of the remaining 10 matches.

January 28, 2006: Exeter traveled to Pomfret to wrestle two teams, Pomfret and Belmont Hill. In the first match with Pomfret, the result was never in doubt as the match started at 189 and Exeter recorded four straight pins and five pins in the first seven matches. Exeter's other points came on one decision and three more pins. Belmont Hill was a bit stronger, and though we won three matches by forfeit, they were able put together 6 pins and a decision to edge out the Big Red. There were some "almost moments" as Sadiq Okochu(130) went into overtime in his match. He then took his man down and had him pinned, but the referee stopped the match thinking it was over. And at 145, Jared Matlock, facing a strong opponent, went deep into the third period before being pinned with 14 seconds to go. The weekend showed that Exeter is gaining experience and is becoming more and more of a contender. With several of the big Class A schools still to be wrestled, the next three weeks should be very exciting.

January 25, 2006: Today Exeter faced three teams and came away with three wins by lop-sided scores. Landmark had two good wrestlers, Federicp at 125 who won by a pin and Streep who wrestled Nate Allukian at 189. That match went into overtime tied at 2-2. No one was able to score points in the first overtime period. In the second, Nate had choice and chose down. He managed to reverse Streep and win 4-2. The next two contests also were won by large scores, Beating Governor Dummer Academy 65-15 and Tilton, for the second time, 65-18. Due to Mike Tetler not having recovered completely to his injury, Coach Hudson wrestled Nate Allukian and Casey Sullivan up a weight to try to give Kyle Flannagan and Jason Orloff a shot. Kyle wrestled a tough match and beat his GDA opponent by a tech fall. Unfortunately, Tilton had no one at 189 so Janson was denied a match.

January 18, 2006: Exeter hosted a young St. Marks team on Wednesday an won handily 70-12. Most of the wins were by pin or forfeit. The team looks forward to an all-day tournament at Timberlane HS this Saturday while the JV travels to Andover for a quad meet with Andover, St. Pauls and NMH.

January 14, 2006: Exeter hosted five teams Saturday and wrestled three of them, winning all three matches. The day began with relatively easy wins over Wilbraham-Munson School 73-6 and Williston-Northhampton 70-6. A look at the match statistics for each would show Exeter with many pins. The toughest and most exciting match of the day was against perennial power Suffern High School from Suffern, New York. The meet began at 119 and Exeter quickly fell behind as we were pinned in the first two matches. A decision by Sadiq Okocha(130) put us on the board. Sadiq scored on five takedowns. However, a pin by Suffern at 135 made it 3-18. Exeter then won the next four matches and three of the last 6 to gain a score of 33-33. However, since Exeter had won 8 of the 14 total matches, under a new criterion established this year to prevent dual meet ties, they were awarded a win for the whole match. Two matches of note were Jason Orloff wrestling at 189 who had to gain a takedown in overtime to beat his opponent and Casey Sullivan's 48 second win over a solid wrestler at 215.

January 11, 2006: This mid-week matchup saw Exeter host both Proctor Academy and the Hyde School of Maine. Exeter posted two more victories over a small Proctor Squad 74-0 and a strong, aggressive but less experienced Hyde team 58-18. In the Proctor meet, the most exciting matchup was at 189 where Jason Orloff decisioned Mann 4-2 with a takedown in overtime. Many of the other matches resulted in pins for Exeter wrestlers or in technical falls. In all, Exeter lost only one match, although they did forfeit two others.

January 7, 2006: Let by Captain Casey Sullivan's two pins, Exeter managed to garner two wins at the Brooks School on Saturday, defeating Brooks 42-34 and Masconomet High School 57-18. Masconomet's young squad was little amtch for Exeter as they won 7 mathces by pins. The Brooks match was closer, but with pins by Dohery (160), Allukian (189) and Sullivan (215), the match was in hand before Exeter had to forfeit at 275.

December 10, 2005: Plaistow, NH. Exeter journeyed to Timberlane High School, long a perennial top-25 team in the country. The Academy wrestled three matches, winning one and losing 2. Exeter handled a young Manchester HS team qui tel easily, winning eight bouts by pins and one by a technical fall. However, both Timberlane and St. Johns Prep were too tough for the Big Red, and they lost 12-52 and 23-54 respectively. Leading Exeter were Captain Casey Sullivan(215) with three wins, a fall, a tech fall and a major decision and James Gettinger(145) with two pins and a major. Others with two wins were Mike Poon(112) and Colin Doherty(160). Unfortunately, due to Massachusetts HS rules barring Post Graduates Nate Allukian(189) was unable to contribute. Exeter now takes a break for the Winter Vacation.

December 7, 2005: Exeter, NH The PEA wrestling team opened its season today by hosting St. Pauls School and Tilton School. Exeter was able to garner a 61-18 win over Tilton, but lost to St. Pauls 25-39.Leading the way today was Senior Co-captain Casey Sullivan with two pins at 215, each in the first period. Other Exeter wrestlers with two wins were Nate Allukian at 189, a pin and a major decision, Jack Salovaara with a major at 160 and a pin at 152, and Rosco Wetlaufer with a win and a pin. Exeter jumped off to big lead in the St. Pauls match as the first weight wrestled was 135. After two major wins at 135 and 140, both James Gettinger(145) and George Negroponte(152) lost close matches against seasoned opponents. Successive wins at 160, 171 and 189 brought the score to 25-6. However, those were the last points Exeter was able to earn as St. Pauls won at 275 and the remaining lower weights. The Tilton match was more one-sided with Exeter winning eleven of fourteen matches.

Preview:

Exeter begins the 2005-2006 season with the determination to better its 11-10 dual meet record of last year. Headed by four-year wrestler Victor Mocco, a consistent first or second place winner in NE tournament the last three years, the team earned much experience last year. Some of the returning letter winners are Sadiq Okocha and James Gettinger, place winners in the Class As in both the last two years, and Casey Sullivan and Mike Tetler, place winners last year. Looking to move up into sarting roles this year are wrestlers such as Peter Lam, George Negroponte and Roscoe Wetlaufer, all first place winners in the JV Tournament last year. With a good turnout of new wrestlers, Exeter will be in a strong position to be competitive this year.er began with our usual first o#660000