FITCHBURG, MA — Hundreds of wrestlers from around New England and New York spent Saturday competing in the annual Bay State Games Wrestling Tournament — but many left without winners in their slots.
Click Here: canberra raiders rugby store
Around 5 p.m., several referees began leaving the event even though all the bouts had not been completed. The referees, who reportedly had volunteered their time for the event, said they were told it would end at 5 p.m. One coach was heard offering a referee a free beer to stick it out until the end of the event. When the ref said No, he was offered two. The referee joked he had to leave and said one word: “Divorce.”
As refs began leaving, organizers corralled coaches, wrestlers, and parents to let them know they were stopping the event and would reschedule the last round of consolation and finalist bouts on another day. Many coaches, parents, and wrestlers became visibly upset — some had spent hours driving to the event or even rented hotel rooms in the area to get to the event on time.
Find out what's happening in Concordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Concord wrestling coaches, who brought nearly a dozen wrestlers to Fitchburg Saturday, were stunned by what had happened. They said they had never seen this happen during their all their time coaching. About half of the Concord wrestlers had yet to compete for first-, second-, and third-place finishes in their weight categories.
Tournament Director Jim Maher, who has run the event for decades, did not return an email from Patch seeking comment.
Find out what's happening in Concordwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
On Sunday, the org posted a statement on Facebook acknowledging “significant issues” with the tourney that “forced us to stop the event before it was completed.” They said participants were “rightfully upset” they could not complete the event, and the org would “be working on a number of remedies and will make a formal announcement to wrestling participants on how this will be handled by early next week.”
The group also stated any “non-relevant or hateful comments” on the org’s social media feeds would be removed and reported. Bay State Games also shut down commenting on the notice post, although comments were allowed on Facebook posts involving other sports.
On other posts, all involved were upset.
“You should be EMBARRASSED!!!!,” one person wrote. “And you should be ready to pay a TON of money back to 100’s (sic) of people … all the weight cut by these kids. All the money spent on hotels. All the money spent on travel. All the entrance fees, all the parking fees … Kids were about to wrestle in the semifinals and they pull the plug?!?!?! This state is a JOKE!!!!”
“What a disgrace,” one parent wrote while forwarding another person’s comment.
A third wrote: “Absolute shame and a joke that the Ma Bay state games wrestling the Tournament officials walked out cause they weren’t getting paid which then cost the kids matches. What a joke. Do better if you don’t have it organized don’t have it. Should refund all the kids there (sic) entry fees.”
Entry fees ranged from $47 to $67 per wrestler, along with a processing fee. Attendees were also charged $10 to enter the Game On facility and $10 for a parking fee to leave.
Boy’s Results (so far)
106 Pound: Biswas Darji of Concord, NH, and Peter Annis of Fisheye/Windsor Locks, CT.
113: Aiden Fogarty of Haverhill, MA/Smitty’s and Antoine Jackman of Lowell, MA/Doughboys.
120: Julien Melendez of York, Maine, and Beckett Leclair of Springfield, MA.
126: Coleson Tully of Carver, MA, and Dante Giusti of SHAW/Bedford, MA.
132 Derek Marcolini of Milford, MA, and Lance Bordeleau of Hooksett, NH/Doughboys.
136: Daniel Sullivan of MetroWest United/Framingham, MA, and Leo Chung of Concord, NH
144: Matthew Mercado of New Windsor, NY, and Brett Dupuis of DC Trained/ Lanesborough, MA.
150: Sarah Merkle of Red Rooster Wrestling Club/Reading, MA, and Max LoRusso of Saugus, MA/Red Rooster Wrestling Club.
157: Justin Bremberg of Red Rooster Wrestling Club/Saugus, MA, and Riley Storozuk of Colchester, CT/ Red Rooster Wrestling Club.
165: Sawyer Ayotte of Massachusetts/MetroWest United, and Brody Coppins of Colchester, VT.
175: Harith Alsultani of Springfield, MA/Kryptonite Wrestling Klub, and Luke Driscoll of Raynham, MA/South Shore Elite Wrestling Club.
190: Quinn Bowles of Boston, MA/CBC and either Nolan Merrill of Rowley, MA, or Sawyer Goodwin of Rochester, NH.
215: Four semi-finalists: Noah Awad of Pleasanton, California; Matt Walsh of Duxbury, MA; Anthony Brown of Wayland, MA; and Max Holloway of Agawam, MA.
Heavyweight: Four semi-finalists: Logan Hauck of Haverhill, MA; Jacob Breau of Concord, NH; Jack Disharoon of Walpole, MA; and Wesley Chesser of Rochester, NH.
Other Concord wrestlers included Jaxon Carter, Max Chung, who placed in the Consi-Semis, Anthony Gualtieri, Owen Gregg, Ryley Holt, Isaiah Puckett, who placed in the Consi of 4, Jeremy Richard, and Dominic Schinella.
Girls Scholastic Results
A: First was Elsa Scott of Sharon, MA/CBC, Amelia Hough of Milford, MA/MetroWest United came in second, and third was Riley-Anne Tarmey of Massachusetts/Red Roots.
B: Kaydn Hansen of Roxbury, MA/Maine Trappers Wrestling Club came in first, Grace Kenna of Bedford, NH/Doughgirls came in second, and third was Jasmin Abdella of Leominster, MA.
C: First was Natalia Jaramillo of Westford, MA/Doughgirls, Luca Marshall of Franklin, MA/MetroWest United was second, third was Izabella Perez of Springfield, MA/KRAZY Monkeys Wrestling, and Brittany Porter was fourth.
D: Caitlin Castoldi of Woburn, MA/Red Roots was first, Ira Sukhija of Newton, MA/MetroWest United was second, and third was Olivia Leone of Haverhill, MA/Smittys Barn.
E: Elena Thomas of RipTide Wrestling Club was first and Cassidy Robertson of Woburn, MA/Red Roots was second.
F: Delana Fausett of Orange, MA/Franklin County Wrestling Club, and Jesmayah Compres of Leominster came in second.
Wrestlers from Shawsheen, Chelmsford, Timberlane Regional in NH, Watertown, Barnstable, Bedford NH, Beverly, the Blue Devil Wrestling Club of Salem, Brockton, Dedham, Lawrence, Lexington, Malden, Everett, Peabody, Winchester, and Woburn also participated.
Concord Girl Wrestles At Nationals
Madison Beauregard of the Concord Crimson Tide team wrestled at the 16U Nationals in Fargo, North Dakota.
In her first bout, she and another wrestler were tied 2-2, but she was pinned later. During consolations, she had a bye in the first round but lost the second round to a wrestler from Texas.
Beauregard was the only girl from New Hampshire wrestling at the event.
Girl wrestlers from Massachusetts at nationals included Corynne McNulty of Lowell, who placed second in the 136 weight category; Fern Jewett placed sixth in the 88-pound bouts; and Sara Mclaughlin of Scituate placed eighth in the 118 weight category. Jocelyn Antes of Frontier, Laura Montoro of Concord Academy, and Olivia Polansky of Bridgewater also wrestled.
Do you have a news tip? Please email it to [email protected]. View videos on Tony Schinella’s YouTube.com channel or Rumble.com channel. Follow the NH politics Twitter account @NHPatchPolitics for all our campaign coverage.
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.