For the first time in at least 35 years – and maybe ever – Conant High School will send wrestlers to the NHIAA championships on Saturday. The Orioles, who fielded a wrestling team for several years in the mid-1980s, returned to action this winter, their three-man team practicing and traveling alongside Abe Ewing’s ConVal wrestlers.
“Sam Kalloch, Ben Cutchin and Evan Bailey are three kids from Conant who work extremely hard,” Ewing said. “They’ve been putting in the work as first-year wrestlers. They’ve had a tough go of it, taking their lumps, but they’re starting to put it all together and they will compete at the state tournament for Conant.”
It’s not easy for the Conant trio, who have to rush from Jaffrey to Peterborough to make ConVal’s 2:32 p.m. practice, but they’re committed, getting better – and making the Cougars better too.
“One of the great things about having Conant in the wrestling room practicing with us,” Ewing said, “is more guys for us to compete against in the room. It makes our guys tougher to have a big room to practice against with lots of people.”
Conant last fielded a wrestling team in 1985, and if any of their wrestlers competed in the state meet that year or any other, the records are either unpublished or lost to history. On Saturday, juniors Kalloch (138 lbs.), Bailey (152 lbs.) and Cutchin (170 lbs.) will try their luck against Division III’s best. The championship meet at Pelham starts at 9:30 a.m.