Murray and McWilliams Crowned Kings of Panther Tourney

WHITMAN — It’s going to be really hard for anyone to take down Barnstable’s Owen Murray or Charlie McWilliams.

The pair of Red Raider co-captains both went unbeaten at the 2015 Panther Invitational Wrestling Tournament Saturday afternoon and were each crowned champions of their respective weight divisions. McWilliams went 3-0 and took home the 152-lb. crown while Murray, undefeated on the season, took home the heavyweight (285+) crown. Fellow co-captain Donnie

Barnstable High School wrestling captains Charlie McWilliams, Owen Murray and Donnie Mach went a combined 8-1 in Saturday’s 2015 Panther Invitational. McWilliams and Murray (left to right) were both crowned tournament champions.
Sean Walsh/capecod.com sports

Mach went 2-1, losing in the championship round to Plymouth North’s 220-pounder Mike Alberghini. Mach pinned Whitman-Hanson’s Cole Berthelette (1:41) and Thomas Kummer of North Attlleboro (1:28) before falling to Alberghini.

As a team, Barnstable High came in fourth place out of the 14 teams competing, finishing behind tournament champion Brockton (184.0), Plymouth North (181.0) and Whitman-Hanson (162.0). Barnstable’s junior varsity team was tops for all teams that entered a sub-varsity squad and finished overall in 7th place with 110.5 points.

Murray pinned Joe Pupek of Coyle-Cassidy in his first bout, pinning Pupek at 0:11. The unbeaten heavyweight then moved onto Silver Lake’s David Pettingell and defeated him by a 3-0 decision. In the championship round, Murray downed Duxbury’s Matt Boyle by pinning him at 0:10. It was the second time Murray has defeated Boyle this season, having taken him down at the Marshfield Tournament two weeks ago.

McWilliams, coming off a solid week but still thinking about the championship bout loss he took at Marshfield to Sandwich’s Matt Landry, went unbeaten at 3-0 yesterday and took home the championship title. McWilliams, wrestling in the 152-lb. division, defeated North Quincy’s Alex Pham by pin at 1:47, followed by a pin of Silver Lake’s Nick Gorham at 1:31. McWilliams took home the 152-lb. title when he defeated North Attleboro’s Adam Eberle via pin at 2:04.

Barnstable’s Mach went 2-0 before falling in the title round and ending the day at 2-1.

Other Barnstable wrestlers who took home victories included Mike Stanley who went 3-3 in the 106-lb. division, John Goode (3-2/120-lb.), Casey Connor (2-2/126-lbs.), Vinny Ciliberto (1-2/138-lbs.) and Mike Bertucci (3-2/195-lbs.). Bertucci and Connor both got bids in the consolation-round title bouts.

The Red Raiders return to regular-season dual meet action on Wednesday (Jan. 14) when they hit the road to New Bedford.

Here’s how each of the Barnstable wrestlers fared at the 2015 Panther Invitational Tournament:

— Sean Walsh is the sports editor for www.capecod.com. His email is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @coachwalshccbm.

Thanks to KAP wrestling.net for providing these detailed results.