EASTHAM — For Nauset Regional High School freshman Jack Peno, the Division 3 South wrestling tournament was an opportunity to prove himself. When he walked onto the mat for his second match on Saturday, Feb. 15, he found himself face to face with his old rival Greyson Loeffel, a junior from Scituate.
As a middle schooler, Peno had lost to Loeffel in a match for third place at the 2024 Division 3 South tournament. This year, Loeffel once again pinned Peno during the second round, this time catching him in a cradle — a move where a wrestler clamps his elbows around his opponent’s neck and one of his knees, immobilizing him.
“I didn’t get revenge,” Peno said, “but it was kind of close.”
Peno came back in the consolation bracket, pinning three opponents — Colin Thornton of Randolph, Andrew Keith of Hanover, and Kevin Almedia of Martha’s Vineyard — and achieving a technical victory over a fourth, Jackson Myers of Bristol County/Dighton Rehoboth. He finished third overall in the 138-pound class. Loeffel finished second after a 13-2 loss to Jacoby Flynn of Norton.
Peno wasn’t the only one looking for a rematch. Owen O’Reilly, a Nauset junior, went up against Andrew Davidson of Sandwich in a contest for third place in the 150-pound class. The two had wrestled four times during the regular season, with each winning twice: this time, O’Reilly won by major decision, scoring 10 points against Davidson’s 2.
“We really knew each other,” O’Reilly said. “It was the last time we were going to face each other this season, so it was memorable.”
O’Reilly said his practices leading up to sectionals had been focused on finding ways to beat Davidson, who is most dangerous when his opponents are on the ground. Davidson, as it turned out, was reaching too much during their match, which allowed O’Reilly to get the win.
Two other Nauset athletes placed in sectionals: Chaz Thomas, a Cape Cod Tech sophomore who wrestles with the team, finished fourth at 175 pounds after losing his semifinals match 8-5 to Foxborough’s Joseph Blanchard; and freshman Antuane Walker took fourth in the 215-pound class after getting pinned in the semifinals by Michael Brennan of Carver.
This was Walker’s first year wrestling, and, like his teammates, he wanted to show the crowd just how far he had come. Walker said his most important match was against Luke Steele, a senior from Sandwich: after a 21-4 loss to Steele on Feb. 1, Walker said, the rematch became an obsession.
Steele ended up pinning Walker during the first round of sectionals. “I got in my head too much and ended up losing,” Walker said. “I was talking about it all day instead of just thinking of him as someone who was my weight.”
Walker’s teammates said he has a habit of pushing himself too hard during matches. During a dual meet against Barnstable on Jan. 8, Walker fell unconscious following a 14-10 loss to senior Ben Maxwell. “He was giving it 110 percent,” Thomas said. “You could see he was starting to fade during the third period. After the match was over, he collapsed. He ended up leaving in an ambulance.”
He’s new to the sport, and Walker said he loves it. This summer, he said, he had been planning on doing a football program, but he’ll be looking instead to compete in wrestling tournaments to become more proficient.
For now, though, Walker’s eyes are set on the divisional tournament on Friday, Feb. 21 at Foxborough High School. His goal is to win his first match, he said, and make it to day two of the tournament.
“Once I’m in my flow state,” Walker said, “it’s just me versus myself.”
Four Track Medals
While Nauset’s wrestlers competed at the Division 3 South sectional tournament, the indoor track team went to Boston for its own divisional championship meet.
Three members of the Warriors’ indoor track team medaled on Saturday: senior Isaiah Robinson, who finished sixth in the 55-meter hurdles; senior Madeline Mahoney, who took eighth in the 1,000 meters; and junior Violet Roche, who placed second in both high jump and long jump. Roche’s high jump on Saturday matched her personal best of 5 feet, 4 inches, which is also the school’s all-time record.
Roche also set the previous two school records for high jump — 5 feet when she was a freshman, and 5 feet, 2 inches when she was a sophomore.
Roche says she feels a lot of pressure to keep breaking those records at meets, especially when the competition is as strong as it is at divisionals. On Saturday, that meant scratching one event — the 300 meters — from her schedule to allow herself to focus on the others.
“All of my events happen at the same time, which is really stressful,” Roche said. “Conserving energy was a big part of my strategy to perform well.”
Although that strategy seems to have paid off in terms of helping her score, Roche still fell 3 inches short of her personal best in the long jump: 17 feet, 9 inches, another school record. Part of the reason for that, she said, has to do with the way her body has changed since last year: she’s grown stronger, she said, and she’s still trying to find the ideal mark for herself. During the first meet of the 2024-25 season, Roche said, she fouled all three of her attempts when she tried to go off her previous mark.
Now that she’s beginning to find her mark, Roche has her sights set on the MIAA Meet of Champions, which will be held in Boston on Saturday, Feb. 22. After that, she said, she’s hoping to attend nationals in March. Her goal, as usual, is to beat her personal records. She wants to hit 5 feet, 6 inches in the high jump.
And, she said, she hopes to see some of her old rivals at those events, too. “I’ve been seeing the same girls since my freshman year — I don’t know all their names, but I recognize them and talk to them,” she said.
