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There is nothing like home sweet home.
The Woodstock Academy Centaurs may want to consider changing their home venue a few feet and one floor.
The wrestling room on the South Campus is located just above the gymnasium floor that the Centaurs have wrestled on for the majority of the season.
But it has provided for four of the five wins the Centaurs have accumulated in dual meets.
All four of those wins came in the past week as The Woodstock Academy downed the St. Bernard-Norwich Tech cooperative Jan. 18 in the wrestling room and followed that up with victories over Pomfret School, Wilbraham-Monson Academy and Southbridge, Jan. 20.
Centaurs coach Wes Jenkins said, while the location is not exactly a long-distance phone call away, it seems to affect his team positively on the mental side.
“It put us on our direct home turf, not that the gym isn’t, but it put us in our own room where we’ve done a lot of work, there is a lot of pride and we just weren’t going to be beaten there,” Jenkins said.
The Centaurs downed the Griffins, 49-0, dropped Southbridge 54-18 and handled Wilbraham-Monson, 48-29.
“The (Wilbraham-Monson) match was the tough one, but key wins by our veterans and Jacob Straub helped seal the win,” Jenkins said.
Abe Cooke, Daniel Ntamwemezi, Tyler Mathieu and Ben Holden each had two pins for the Centaurs (5-8) in the three matches.
Patrick Barrows set the tone for The Woodstock Academy wrestling team Jan. 18.
The 195-pound wrestler was the first on the mats for the Centaurs against St. Bernard-Norwich Tech.
“(Saints’ wrestler Zach Jackson) was much stronger than Pat was, but Pat was just more clever,” Jenkins said.
Barrows didn’t waste any time. He countered a Jackson takedown attempt, flipped him on his back and got him into a headlock, recording the pin in just 53 seconds.
The Centaurs used that momentum to build a big early lead and hung on for just their second dual match victory in 10 matches, 42-36, in the wrestling room at South Campus.
Jenkins said the location change, from the South Campus gym, to the wrestling room, was a plus for his team.
“It put us on our direct home turf, not that the gym isn’t, but it put us in our own room where we’ve done a lot of work, there is a lot of pride and we just weren’t going to be beaten there,” Jenkins said.
Barrows gave the Centaurs the 6-0 lead but it quickly mushroomed to 24-10 after Ntamwemezi recorded a pin and both Kellen Horst and Adam Schimmelpfennig won by forfeit.
Aedan Noel suffered a tough loss in between those forfeits was also a source of motivation.
“He didn’t win, but I thought he was the hero of the day,” Jenkins said.
Noel lost to Logan Starr, 9-4, but seven of those points by Starr came in the third period.
The Saints (3-12) did get as close as six, 30-24, late in the match.
Mathieu stemmed the tide with a pin at 145 pounds.
“Honestly I was concerned in the first 30 seconds because he was wrestling really slow,” Jenkins said.
To make matters worse, Mathieu chose bottom late in the first period.
Jenkins began to chew him out for the choice, telling Mathieu he had to move, not just languish on the bottom.
“He hit a beautiful switch, throws a half (nelson) immediately, runs the kid to his back out of nowhere,” Jenkins said.
Mathieu won in just 1 minute, 42 seconds.
A double forfeit brought up Holden who pinned Josh Brown just 1:41 into their match to put it out of reach of the Saints.
“Beating a team by forfeits is never as fun or as satisfying as actually having a legitimate win,” Jenkins said.
In this case, both teams surrendered three forfeits making the match even.
“Head of School Chris Sandford was there and he sent me a text later that said, ‘See a lot of growth.’ That’s been our season. I’m excited,” Jenkins said.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director