Black & Blue Wrestlers Win Third Dual Meet of the Season

The Swampscott-Marblehead wrestling team on Thursday did something it hasn't done in a long time: the Black & Bluers recorded their third dual meet win this season, defeating Everett 47-24.

Big wins came from Joe Mitlin, a Swampscott senior who bumped up to 170 lbs, Eugene Bromberg, a Marblehead senior 220 pounder and first-time wrestler; Sean Taylor, a Marblehead senior and co-captain at 285 lbs, all of whom  pinned their opponents. Jake Powell, a Swampscott senior and co-captain at 126 lbs, recorded the 95th victory of his high school career with a technical fall, and earned five points for the team. MHS Junior Ali Atallah also added a pin of his own at 182 lbs.

"I'm ecstatic to have won against Everett, a D1 school" said Michael Stamison, the team's head coach. "What most impressed me though, was heavyweight Sean Taylor bouncing back after a rough few days last week, in which he suffered two of his three losses this year.

"He was to wrestle Marc Fils-Aime, who placed 6th at Lowell Holidays last Friday (which is regarded to be the toughest regular season tournament in New England) and is a very solid heavyweight himself. Sean first came up to me prior to the start of the dual meet and said he wanted to lead off; to set the tone.

"I told him we had already decided to start the wrestling at 126 lbs that day. Not only did he wrestle his best match of the year, pinning Fils-Aime in the first period, Fils-Aime wanted to wrestle Sean again in an exhibition match. I normally don't allow my veterans to go again as we have such low numbers, but as no one at our practices can give Sean a proper match, I decided to see what he could do against Fils-Aime again. And he pinned him, again, emphatically. Sean stepped up his game last night, and combined with Jake and the other seniors, they are all peaking at the right time."

Stamison also noted that last night's win speaks volumes of the recruiting our veterans did over the offseason, and the work the boys have been putting in this year. "It's no fun to keep coming out and wrestling for a losing team, but if they keep this up, we should win a few more this year," Stamison said.

The team's dual meet record now stands at 3-10.

The team will have its first home meet of the season Saturday in what's called a tri-meet with Acton-Boxboro and Saugus.  Wrestling will start at 9 and matches are expected to go until noon.