Sports

Improved Wilmington Wrestlers Grab Share of Middlesex League Title

With a 3-1 Middlesex League record, the Wildcats snagged the first league crown for the school in 35 years.

It's been several years in the making. But recently, the Wilmington High School wrestling team was rewarded for its collective hard work.

A team that has been slowly but steadily improving over the last several years, Wilmington recently earned a share of the Middlesex League regular season crown along with Burlington. This is the first time Wilmington has won a league championship since 1979, according to the Town Crier.

Longtime head coach Mike Pimental said in the last few seasons that his young wrestlers were working to build a foundation, and were close to becoming a contender. Though Pimental took this year off from coaching, his words rang true this season as the squad now has seasoned grapplers.

"We’re still young, but this year our freshmen have transformed into tougher sophomores," said head coach Michael Pimental during an interview with Patch last season. "We’re progressing and as time goes on we’re getting better and better. We’ve been closing the gap, and we continue to do so."

This year Joel McKenna took over as interim head coach. Last week, thanks to a 33-30 victory over Watertown, McKenna's charges snagged a share of the Middlesex League Division 2 title, according to the Town Crier.

"The ways the kids carried this into their sights and have been working for this is just great – it was a run of tough matches against some quality league opponents," McKenna told the Town Crier. "The kids knew they could accomplish the goal and they embraced it and worked very hard at it during practices."


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