Nauset-Cape Tech Wrestling Earns High Placements At States

GLOUCESTER – Nauset-Cape Cod Tech wrestling had a number of high placements at the Division 3 state tournament Saturday and, as a result, will send three wrestlers to All-States in what head coach James Rosato said has been the Warriors’ best season since he started coaching the team.

After a strong night at the Feb. 14 Division 3 South sectionals in Scituate, the Warriors sent six wrestlers to states. Those wrestlers were senior Owen O’Reilly (who won the 144-pound bracket at sectionals), sophomore Jack Peno (won the 157-pound bracket), sophomore Evan McCarty (placed third in the 120-pound class), junior Chaz Thomas (placed third in the 190-pound class), senior Freddie Ricks (placed third in the 215-pound class) and senior Duante Gray (placed third in the 285-pound class). 

Nauset-Cape Tech placed sixth as a team among a field of 16 at sectionals. Rosato, who’s coached the team since 2022, said he thinks it’s the best sectionals performance in Nauset history.

“It feels good to be like everything going in the right direction,” he said. “Feels good, and then it's like the stuff that happens in February kind of makes up for everything else. This is the part of the season that counts. These are the tournaments that count, and to get kids to continue to go deep into the state tournament is kind of like, that's what we focus on.”

At the Division 3 state championships (a two-day tournament last Friday and Saturday inside Gloucester High School’s fieldhouse), O’Reilly emerged from a field of 16 as the 144-pound runner-up in what was one of the toughest brackets in the tournament. O’Reilly defeated Monument Mountain’s Samuel Dignard 20-4 (by technical fall) in the round of 16, Belchertown’s Andre Jarry 13-8 in the quarterfinals and John J. Duggan’s Matthew LeMay 7-0 in the semifinals. O’Reilly then lost to Tewksbury’s Sean Callahan 6-1 in the championship bout.

“He was super excited to go wrestle out in that finals match,” Rosato said. “He was obviously super disappointed — to lose in the state finals as a senior is tough. You don't get the opportunity again, but he's got a good head on his shoulders. And it's tough too, because that match was tight. They run that back 10 times, I think he beats him half the time.”

Before that final match, O’Reilly was eminently calm, practice-wrestling at points with Peno and Rosato but otherwise seemingly meditatively pacing back and forth on a mat adjacent to the center of the gym, where all the championship bouts in the various brackets took place.

“He’s been mentally on point all day, all weekend,” Rosato said.

In the 285-pound class, Gray defeated Wilmington’s Jonathan Panatta 2-0 in the round of 16 but lost to Holyoke’s Parker Brunelle (by fall) in the quarterfinals. 

Then, Gray proceeded to win the consolation bracket. Gray had never wrestled prior to the 2025-26 season. He first joined the team to get better at jiu-jitsu, which he had practiced for about a year and a half. A few months later, Gray finished in third place at states by taking the consolation bracket.

“It feels good to get a third place, because it shows me that I can take what I learned from jiu-jitsu and transform it into what I'm doing in wrestling, and that's overall very good to think about,” he said.

To get there, Gray defeated Keefe Tech’s Caio DePaula (by fall) in the consolation second round, Hanover’s John Danick (by fall) in the quarterfinals, Athol’s Nicholas Leblanc 4-1 (via a fourth round sudden victory) in the semifinals and Scituate’s Kevin Dwyer (by fall) in the consolation final. 

Peno placed fourth in the 157-pound class. He trailed Tewksbury’s Carlo Desisto 13-3 in the third period of the round of 16 before winning via fall, then defeated Athol’s Evan Ke 20-17 in the quarterfinals. Peno was defeated by Marlborough’s Samuel Wilcox (by fall), the bracket’s eventual champion, in the semifinals.

In the consolation bracket, Peno advanced against Mount Greylock’s Maximus Soto via medical forfeit after Soto sustained an injury during the match, then lost in the consolation final/third place bout 14-13 to East Longmeadow’s Rochild Edma.

Thomas placed eighth in the 190-pound class, though he had to drop out of the competition early due to injury. He had been defeated by Gloucester’s Zachary Hashley 16-3 in the round of 16, then won in the consolation bracket against Taconic’s Malikai Lytle 10-1 and Mount Greylock’s Jayquan Vazquez (by forfeit) as he wrestled through the injury before withdrawing.

McCarty lost by a 7-0 fall to Keefe Tech’s Paul Ryan in the round of 16 of the 120-pound class. In the first round of the consolation bracket, McCarty was defeated by Pentucket’s Damian Houle 16-10. Ricks lost by a 3-0 fall to Quabbin’s Brady Dennis in the round of 16 of the 215-pound class. In the first round of the consolation bracket, Ricks was defeated 18-0 (technical fall) by Pentucket’s William Lewis.

As a team, Nauset placed 17th out of 51 schools. O’Reilly, Gray and Peno advanced to All-States, set for March 1 and 2 at the MassMutual Center in Springfield. That’s one more Warrior at All-States than last season (O’Reilly and Peno both reached last year too). And the six wrestlers at states in Gloucester last Saturday were two more than last year’s four. That’s a marked, important improvement for the team in a sport where personal drive truly shines, where success is almost solely up to the individual.

“You could have 40 kids on your team, but if only six of them really care about it, we want to kind of find those kids that really want to have success,” Rosato said.