Eastbayri.com

EAST PROVIDENCE — The host East Providence and Barrington High School wrestling teams gathered Thursday, Feb. 9, for a Division I crossover tri-meet with Warwick Vets, the Townies beating both visiting outfits to finish off an already top-notch regular season in fine fashion.

East Providence completed its I-North dual meet slate with a 14-2 record, good for third place behind only unbeaten Cumberland and one-loss Hendricken in the division standings. The Hurricanes split Thursday, leaving defending state champion Vets with a 9-5-1 record. Barrington’s record dipped to 3-11 in the I-South subgroup. The Eagles have two matches remaining, including a home date against rival Mt. Hope, Feb. 15, at 6 p.m. and at North Kingstown the next night, Feb. 16, at 7.

“We had a few injuries, but everyone deals with that,” E.P. head coach Tom Galligan said of the Townies’ season to date. “Other than that, I’m very happy with what we’ve done so far. The kids have stayed together as a group. They’re working hard in the room. They’re great kids. They’re a fun group to coach and be around.”

The Townies certainly enjoyed their finale Thursday, which included Senior Night festivities. E.P. opened the competition with 50-21 win over Barrington.

The Eagles forfeited the first two matches to the Townies at 106 and 113 pounds. The first actual bout went to the hosts as Oakmar Muang earned a pin in just 22 seconds at 120 pounds.

Captain Joao Vicente then added another pin-fall victory for the Townies in 3:17 at 126. Jake Burrows followed with a commanding tech-fall win at 132, the match stopped 18 seconds into the second period as he gained an 18-0 lead in points.

Moving to the middle weights, Alex Abatecola won by pin at 138 for E.P. at 1:02 of the first. Anthony Pereyra next did the same at 1:41 of the first at 145.

The first truly competitive outing followed with a match between the Townies’ Austin Baptista and Barrington’s Joe McMahon. Baptista was in control of the bout for most of the six minutes, McMahon doing just enough defensively to avoid the pin. But Baptista won on points, 9-2, to up E.P.’s overall lead to 44-0.

The Eagles opted to forfeit at 160, the Townies’ Domenic Ferreira receiving the win. At 170, John Lewis picked up Barrington’s first points with a 12-6 win over Chris Costa in another worthy bout.

Lewis’ win started a match-ending run for the Eagles, who picked up a pin-fall win from Gerard Lacerte 24 seconds into the third period of his outing at 182 pounds and another victory by pin at 220 from Jack Ryan 1:52 into his contest. No matches were declared at 195 and heavyweight.

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