Martin Middle School: RI MS Wrestling State Champs!

Martin Middle School won the Rhode Island Wrestling middle school state championship last month, held at Cumberland High School. The championship capped an undefeated dual meet season for Martin wrestlers. Martin was also the winner of the annual Birchwood holiday tournament in Johnston and took First Place at the annual McGee wrestling tournament in Berlin, Connecticut during the season.

The middle school state tournament featured 26 schools including Riverside MS. Riverside was as high as 6th place overall while eventually finishing midway at 13th place. For Martin it was a dominating weekend as they led the tourney throughout being closely chased by Chariho. After leading by 16 points, Martin broke open the two-day tourney and ran away with a 32 point margin of victory over Chariho.

Once all of the qualifying matches were secured, Martin featured 6 wrestlers in the final 17 weight classes ranging from 70 to 275 pounds. Martin continued to dominate and took home 4 state champions, including the tourney's coach-voted outstanding wrestler, Jacob Estrada. Martin won both of the head to head final matches against Chariho. Martin's state champions are: Jason Santiago, Jacob Estrada, Everex Rodriguez and Kevin Vega. 2nd place finishers are Malik Kilgore and Cameron Romero. 3rd place finishers are Emmanuel Santiago, Cameron Bailey and George Cepeda. A 4th place finisher was Jared Wood and a 5th place finisher, Noah Kollet. Also wrestling for varsity and contributing to team points were Yan Carlos Montanez Ramos, John Jessop, Steven Santos, Austin Phillips, John Lameiro, D'ante Silva, Bryan Rivera, Keegan Seagrave and Mackenna Brito. Con Capobianco received a 5th place medal for Riverside MS. "Our athletes work hard all year for this opportunity," said Martin head coach Bobby Rodericks. "Our strength lies in the numbers of kids who come out for this sport and then do well, qualifying for the state championship meet," he added. "These kids worked tenaciously and deserved the win. Congrats to a very good Riverside team and coach A.J. LaScola also."