![On Tuesday, Jan. 28, Wayland Cares director J Verhoosky led a presentation on the importance of choosing to be vulnerable in conversations. Through various activities and experiments, the audience was instructed to confront how they approach risk taking and their comfort zones. “[My biggest takeaway was] make yourself available for other people and share things you might not share with other people to make them feel like they're in a safe environment,” junior Addison Voight said.](https://waylandstudentpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/JLb1q3m4ZHvNAKYzv7c60kyyrrafzS8pJlYoJcoj.png)
Wayland High School hosted Newton-South on Wednesday, Feb. 5, for the wrestling team’s senior night. This was Wayland’s first Wednesday home meet since winning the Dual County League Championships the week before. Going into senior night, the varsity wrestling team had an undefeated streak of 4-0 and Newton-South had a streak of 4-1. Wayland won with a final score of 54-13.
In honor of senior night, the wrestling team held a ceremony for the senior wrestlers and managers. During the ceremony, the seniors were given a bouquet of flowers to hand to their parents. One by one, seniors’ names were called and they were joined by family members in the middle of the mat to take a photo. After the ceremony ended, both wrestling teams warmed up before the start of the meet.
Freshman:
The only freshman to wrestle for varsity was Brayden Lyons. He wrestled in the weight class of 106 pounds. Lyons won his match, getting 15 points before pinning his opponent in one minute and 60 seconds.
Sophomores:
Joseph Cavallo wrestled in the weight class of 157 pounds. Cavallo lost his match (5-14) to Newton South wrestler Vincent Flemming.
Damian Sdoia wrestled in the 113 pound weight class. Sdoia won his match against Newton South’s Oxford Huang after gaining 16 technical points. The match ended due to a mercy.
Juniors:
Mark Altreuter wrestled in the weight class of 120 pounds. Altreuter ended up winning the match 7-0.
Ronan Flatley wrestled in the weight class of 126 pounds and faced Oliver Weiss and lost 0-7.
Dan Florez wrestled in the weight class of 138 pounds and faced Leon Huang. Florez won with a take-down, which gave him three points before pinning his opponent in one minute and 12 seconds.
Seniors:
Captain Michael Keenan was the first wrestler to compete. Keenan wrestled in the 144 pound weight class against Newton South’s Nick Genin. Keenan lost his match by three points after his opponent got a takedown.
Captain Jaden Kaufman wrestled in the weight class of 150 pounds. Kaufman took the win after taking down his opponent which gave him three points. He then followed that up with a pin in 55 seconds. “I’m looking forward to the postseason, hopefully I’ll make it to states this year,” Kaufman said.
Captain Cole Chase, a Roger Williams University wrestling commit, wrestled in the weight class of 165 pounds. His match was against Will Cuphone of Newton-South. He gave Wayland another win after taking down his opponent, which was followed by a pin after two minutes.
In the 132 pound bout, captain Paul Lang wrestled for the first time since injuring his knee. Lang wrestled Newton-South’s Alex Rhein and took a loss against his opponent.
Jamie Buffum wrestled in the weight class of 175 pounds. Buffum wrestled Matthew Cuxave, winning the match 9-3 after he took down his opponent on three different occasions.
Anthony Brown wrestled in the weight class of 190 pounds against Newton-South’s Joshua Setboun. Brown got a pin in under 50 seconds after taking down his opponent.
Nathan Tobe wrestled in the weight class of 215 pounds against Greg Karpov. Tobe gave Wayland a win when he pinned his opponent in 32 seconds.
Sully Ngyuen competes in the weight class of 285 pounds. Ngyuen won his match as his opponent forfeited.
After the varsity matches, the junior varsity team played. The varsity team cheered on JV and gave the wrestlers advice. According to Chase, they are a close team.
“The brotherhood that forms the team, with people that you normally wouldn’t be friends with, that’s pretty cool,” Chase said.
