METHUEN – Barnstable High School’s undefeated and top-ranked heavyweight wrestler Owen Murray will fight for his first-ever state championship title today when he faces Chelmsford High’s Ryan Cove at the MIAA State Championships at Methuen High.
Barnstable High’s Owen Murray remains undefeated and goes for his first-ever state championship wrestling title today at Metheun High School.
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports
Due to safety concerns, the state tournament was moved from Weymouth to Methuen earlier this week. The Red Raiders sent three wrestlers to the tourney who qualified last week at sectionals, with Murray winning his third consecutive Division 1 South Sectional title and junior Casey Connor capturing his first-ever sectional title belt.
Charlie McWilliams, a Barnstable senior co-captain along with Murray, came in second place last week in the sectionals and went 1-2 yesterday at the states.
Murray went 2-0 and has yet to be defeated this season. He now has 157 career victories and is 30-0 this season thus far.
Murray (285) defeated Framingham’s Shawn Quigley in the Division 1 Championship Preliminaries yesterday, pinning Quigley at 0:56. He followed that with another pin at 1:33 in his ensuing quarterfinals bout against Agawam’s Nick Hope.
Connor (126) picked up a win in the championship prelims when he pinned Needham’s Dan Goldstein at 4:35 (11-2 score) but then fell to Shawsheen’s Bryce Spinosa in the championship quarterfinals. Connor was pinned by Spinosa at 2:52 and fell by a score of 4-2. The rough-and-tumble 126-pounder then bounced back with a 5-4 win by decision in the consolation prelims with a win over East Longmeadow’s Jake Podmore. Connor also returns today to try and advance to next week’s title.
Connor faces Lawrence High’s Victor Guzman today in the consolation semifinals.
McWilliams started off on the right foot yesterday, defeating Haverhill’s Jacob Prescott by a 6-1 decision in the 152-lb. division in the championship prelims.
He suffered a tough 3-0 loss by decision to Framingham’s Jake Stetson in the championship quarterfinals to fall to 1-1 on the day and then fell again in the consolation prelims to Lincoln-Sudbury’s Mike Tylko. The 2-0 loss by decision eliminated McWilliams from further contention this season.
Murray is ranked number one in the state of Massachusetts at the heavyweight level (285+) and has already signed a letter of commitment to play football next season at Stonehill College on an athletic scholarship. He is a four-time Old Colony League all-star wrestler and two-time OCL All-Star in football.
— Sean Walsh is the sports editor for www.capecod.com. His email is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @coachwalshccbm
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