Division 3 state wrestling: Tewksbury repeats despite injury woes

FOXBORO – Initial expectations were slightly tempered for the defending Division 3 wrestling champions, Tewksbury, coming into this season’s state championship due to a rash of injuries.

But despite bringing only six wrestlers to the meet, Tewksbury was in the mix heading into the final series of matches but had to sweep first-place finishes in three events to ensure back-to-back Division 3 state titles.

Manny Mengata was happy to deliver again.

The senior wrestler captured his first individual state wrestling title at 215 with an 8-6 decision over Max Thomas (Gloucester) to send Tewksbury to the podium for the second time in as many seasons.

Mengata defeated Thomas in the North Sectionals as well to help Tewksbury advance to the state championships as Jack Lightfoot (113) and Nick Desisto (120) also claimed victories, respectively.

“This feels really, really good to go back-to-back, especially my senior year. This team put a lot of work in, but if you look at our dual meet record not a lot of people thought we would make it this far,” said Mengata, who only started wrestling after his freshman year. “This was a big statement. Winning a state title is nice but for every guy here it is all about the bigger picture and making sure Redmen are represented well in our community, and I was just happy to get things done on the mat.”

Lightfoot and Desisto can claim back-to-back individual titles as well when they were the catalysts for the Redmen’s first ever state title in 2024. Lightfoot picked up the 7-2 decision over Diego Cruz (Mount Everett) while Desisto continued his torrid pace this season with a 15-3 major decision over Jisup Shin (Weston) with three takedowns and a near fall.

“It’s not what we were anticipating coming in, at least I thought a top five finish was reasonable, but we got hit with the injury bug pretty hard, a state champion out of the lineup, so this just shows the class on the high end and we got it done with six guys, which is pretty rare,” said Tewksbury head coach, Steve Kasprzak.

Wakefield was in the thick of things as they trailed Tewksbury by 0.5 points heading into the finals. The Warriors were set up as well with three finalists but only pulled over two out of the three victories. Aydin Lamb was electric, picking up the pinfall at 3:26 over Manuel Garcia (Dedham) to improve to 42-2 on the season and put the Warriors in the driver’s seat.

Sean Callahan took second place at 157 with a technical fall to top-seeded Adrian Guzman of Ashland, who now sits at 31-2 for 2025.

Kip King anchored the Wakefield squad with a 4-1 decision at 285 pounds over Dillion Lafond (Franklin), but it wasn’t enough to topple Tewksbury in the end as the Redmen took the team title with 116.5 points while Wakefield finished with 113.

While King’s victory was slightly anticlimactic for the team component, head coach Ross Ickes pointed out this was the first trophy ever for the second-place Warriors.

“Kip works hard, he is a big kid, and he moves well. We’ve been building this for a while, our kids work hard and put a lot of work into it. I just pull the strings, so good for them, life is good,” said Ickes.

Rounding out the top five teams were Bristol-Plymouth with an impressive third-place finish at 95.5, Ashland (92) placed fourth with two first-place finishers. Guzman and Nathan Hicks with a 9-0 major decision over Scituate’s Liam Holden while the host Foxborough posted 85.5 for fifth place.

Logan Costello (106) of Ashland, Coleson Tully (132) of Carver, Tanner Kamuda (138) of Pentucket, West Dews (Taconic, 144), Henry McElligott (Holliston, 150), Lucas Alvan (Ludlow, 175), and James Fodera (Lynnfield-North Reading, 190) complete the individual state champions for Division 3.

“The tournament was pretty even, and we got fortunate enough to have other teams beat each other up, took points away from each other, and it let us hang in there,” said Kasprzak. “Then we swept in the finals which was huge and getting all the bonus points in the semifinals put us over the edge. Happy and proud of my guys for sure.”