Marinilli, Chakir qualify for All-State tourney

The remarkable debut season of CHS wrestler Eddie Marinilli will continue for at least one more chapter after the standout freshman made it all the way to the state finals at last weekend’s Division 3 championships at Wakefield High School.

Freshman Eddie Marinilli has reached the finals of his first 2 postseason tournaments. (Mike Barucci photo)

Marinilli, who has been the clear-cut MVP in his first season with the Bulldogs, will now head to Reading Memorial High School to compete against other top 126-pound wrestlers in the prestigious All-State tournament, which gets underway tomorrow at noon. Marinilli will be joined by teammate Anis Chakir, who also qualified for the tournament after placing sixth at states in the 132-pound class.

In Marinilli’s case, he is already in rare company having made it this far as a freshman, but he is far from satisfied, according to head coach Brian Caffelle.

“He’s an outstanding wrestler, and he’s been working so hard and especially at the tournament level he’s pretty fearless out there,” said Caffelle.

For the second weekend in a row, Marinilli’s fearlessness was on full display as he knocked off three straight opponents, including two different sectional champions in Melrose’s Stephen MacIntosh and Coyle & Cassidy’s Justin Kelleher. But it was the champion of his own section, Wayland’s Ramazan Attasauov, who again proved to be his most formidable as he handed Marinilli his second consecutive finals loss — this time by a quick pinfall in the opening period.

Caffelle said the plan going into the rematch was for Marinilli to be aggressive, and that is just what he did, taking a shot at the leg that Attasauov managed to turn into a takedown.

“He just put him right to his back,” Caffelle said of Attasauov, who pinned all four opponents he faced. “This is one of those cases where you just have to tip your cap to the opponent, but we’re hoping to have a third opportunity to face him [at All-States].”

As for Chakir, Canton’s other top six finisher at the D3 meet, Caffelle said he once again showed incredible mental toughness and resolve in bouncing back from an early defeat that could have derailed many other competitors. He went on to win three consecutive matches—including a 16-4 major decision and another by pin—before running out of steam in the fifth place match against D3 west champion Omar Velez.

“I was really proud of Anis in this tournament,” said Caffelle. “To come back and wrestle that well after losing shows you do take it one match at a time, and those are the type of kids I try to promote as much as I can to the rest of the team.”

Addition to Marinilli and Chakir, Canton also had two other wrestlers compete at states: Justin Dickie at 113 pounds and Brandon Lentol at 170 pounds. Dickie picked up a couple of victories in the tournament and went on to place eighth overall, while Lentol ran into some tough opponents early and bowed out after two matches.

Caffelle said both wrestlers had the talent to go further, but they wrestled tough in every match and were two of the team’s most improved competitors from last season to this season.

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Posted by Jay Turner on Feb 24 2017. Filed under High School, Sports. Both comments and pings are currently closed.