The Northampton Wrestling team kicked off their 2024-25 season with a dual meet last Wednesday against Parkland. The match highlighted both the strengths and weaknesses of the K-Kids’ lineup as they suffered pins from weights 172 – 215, but won handily 40-24.

Head coach Joe Provini summed up the performance, “We looked rusty. We were nowhere near our best. You never know what you’re going to get in that first dual meet of the year, but you know, it is what it is. It’s a wake up call for some of the guys with the way they cut weight.”

“I thought we wrestled hard for the first dual meet of the year, but there’s a tremendous amount of improvement that we can make. That’s why we go to these tournaments,” he continued.

Freshman Carter Chlebove, brother of 3-time state champion Julian, scored a match-clinching fall in his first-ever varsity bout. He described the experience, “I mean, I was pretty nervous at first, but then I was sitting over there getting my thoughts and I realized like, ‘It’s just a wrestling match. I’m going to go out there and compete my best and get six for my team.’ So that’s what I did, so that’s pretty exciting.”

Northampton 40, Parkland 24

160 - Parker Williams (N) pinned Isaac Evans (P), 1:40; 172 - Jorge Moya (P) pinned Colin Turner (N), 0:39; 189 - Christopher Toth (P) pinned Blayze Ibarra (N), 1:45; 215 - Myles Lysek (P) pinned Joell Small (N), 2:37; 285 - Gavin Grell (N) maj. dec. Max Pugach (P) 10-1; 107 - Brayden Wenrich (N) tech fall Luis Moya (P), 15-0 1:24; 114 - Ryan Marano (N) dec. Braden Todora, 10-7; 121 - Matthew Velez (P) dec. Colin Marano (N), 4-0; 127 - Gabriel Ballard tech fall Eli Russ (P), 15-0 4:46; 133 - Trey Wagner (N) tech fall Jared Santilli (P), 18-3 3:13; 139 - Leo Kern (P) dec. Matthew Sommer (N), 5-0; 145 - Carter Chlebove (N) pinned Donato Ciampittiello (P), 1:52; 152 - Chase Grabfelder (N) pinned Dallas Reyes (P), 1:15

The team took their show on the road to Ohio over the weekend to compete in the Walsh Jesuit Ironman. Annually, The Ironman has the deepest field of any high school wrestling tournament, drawing schools from across the country including the national prep powers.

The K-Kids finished 16th in the team standings out of 128 teams and had two placewinners. Freshman Brayden Wenrich took 4th at 106 pounds, going 6-2. His only losses were 3-0 in round two and 9-6 in SV in the third-place match.

Sophomore Gabe Ballard went 5-3 on the weekend to claim 6th place at 126. Two of the losses were to Karson Brown of St. Edwards in Ohio, one in the quarters and one in SV for fifth place.

Juniors Trey Wagner and Chase Grabfelder each went 2-2 as the only other multiple match winners for the K-Kids. Wagner opened with a pair of pins, but suffered consecutive close losses (4-2, 6-3 SV) to get eliminated.