Nauset Wrestling Improving At ‘Exponential Rate’ During Quest To Repeat As League Champs

SANDWICH – Fresh off a league championship, the Nauset wrestling team is looking to do it all over again with even more experience.

Only two years ago, the team rostered 13 wrestlers, a group that included just four returners and zero seniors. That figure shot to 21 wrestlers last year, and the program-stabilizing increase paid off with a Cape and Islands League title.

Now, the program has even more wrestlers. The progress and improvement is evident in their results. The Warriors won against Durfee on Dec. 17 in what was their first dual-meet in Nauset’s new gym — a “milestone,” head coach James Rosato said. A year prior, the team had lost that very match to Durfee.

The competition against a tough Durfee team came down to the last match. Nauset now has the numbers needed to really try and win dual-meets, senior captain Owen O’Reilly said.

“We've got so many more kids,” he said. “We've got new mats. I feel like there's a lot of support for our program. We're growing every year. Everyone's getting better at an exponential rate. We're all feeding off each other. It's a really good environment to be around.”

Before facing Durfee, a crop of eight Nauset wrestlers shook off the offseason rust at Scituate High School on Dec. 13 in the Kevin Curtis Invitational, a tournament of 16 teams and approximately 170 wrestlers. There, O’Reilly placed third overall in the 144-pound class and sophomore Evan McCarty placed third in the 120-pound class. Sophomore James Silvernail finished fourth in the 285-pound class and senior Freddie Ricks finished sixth in the 215-pound class.

Then, on Dec. 20, 15 Nauset wrestlers competed in the Sandwich Early Bird, a tournament of 10 teams and also approximately 170 wrestlers. O’Reilly won the 144-pound class, and Silvernail won the 285-pound class. Senior Duante Gray came in second in the 285-pound class while sophomore Antuane Walker finished second in the 215-pound class. McCarty and eighth grader Phoenix Bailey each placed third in the 120-pound and 106-pound classes, respectively.

Nauset also competed in a quad-meet against Carver, Durfee and Xaverian on Dec. 27.

“It's nice to get the results,” Rosato said before the Sandwich tournament. “We finally have kids with more experience on the team, more returning wrestlers. Our system, as coaches, has gotten better.”

For the Warriors, the added experience has been king. Most incoming wrestlers are brand new to the sport — which isn’t an intuitive one — in high school, necessitating something of a crash course in rules from the ground up for the first few months, Rosato said. To not have to do that with returning, seasoned wrestlers is critical.

“It's a big difference between being a two-week wrestler and being a year-and-two-week wrestler,” Rosato said.

Indeed, Nauset has at least 10 returners for 2025-26. The team has four seniors, five juniors, 10 sophomores, two freshmen and an eighth grader. That group is looking to repeat as Cape and Islands League champions. O’Reilly said the increased numbers help, but they’ll still try to just put the work in.

“With wrestling, you get out what you put in, and I think we know if we put in a lot of work, if we're dialed, we could potentially do it again,” he said.