Sports
Henrick Takes First Ever Wrestling Sectional Crown for Peabody
Equally a force on the wrestling mat as the football field, D.J. Henrick captures first ever divisional state tournament title for Peabody wrestling program.
Peabody High wrestler D.J. Henrick made history for the Tanners this past weekend, taking home the Division I North Sectional crown in his weight class.
The 220-pound senior captured the league title the week before, only losing one match during the season, and came into the Sectional meet seeded No. 2.
This is only the second year since the wrestling program was granted varsity status -- it was a junior varsity/club team the year before that. The Tanners' co-ed wrestlers are led by coach Dave Henrick, Sr.
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The Salem News reports that the younger Henrick won four matches on Saturday in Chelmsford to advance to this weekend's state meet in Weymouth.
Coach Henrick told the Salem News that most of the wrestlers his son and teammates go up against in the Northeastern Conference/Cape Ann League are Division II schools, so moving up to Division I means his son is now wrestling some of the best high school grapplers in the state.
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Henrick said the feat also won praise from coaches of more established programs and places Peabody on the "wrestling map," as it were.
Fellow Tanners Tony Catalano, Rob Liccardi, Ronjon Santa Cruz, Mike Tardanico and Josh Sweeney all wrestled in the tournament as well.
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