These two teams went at each other hard, right from the first bout of the evening when Cumberland heavyweight Josh Delannoy edged Vets freshman Casey Beauregard, 4-2 in overtime. This was one of the swing bouts Warwick needed to win in order to beat the favored Clippers.
Cumberland is extremely strong in the lightweights and it showed as Erik Travers along with Shai and Shoneil Lariviere notched impressive wins in the next three bouts to build an early 15-0 Cumberland lead.
The 125-pound bout featured two state champions going head to head. Warwick’s Mike Meyers is a two-time state champion who cut down to 125, where he ruled the state last winter, to meet Parent, the defending champ at 119 who has moved up a weight class.
Meyers proved too slick for the stronger Parent, scoring three takedowns and a reverse for a 9-2 victory.
“Jaron is really strong,” Meyers said later. “I felt a lot quicker tonight after cutting some weight.”
Meyers is a returning New England champion and has lost just one high school match in his three years of wrestling.
Cumberland then showed why it is such a strong dual-meet team when freshman Jon Maccini notched an impressive 6-0 win at 130 over Matt Brown, stopping any momentum the Hurricanes might have been building. The two teams split the next four matches and then Warwick won a tossup match at 160 when Nick Salois edged Tyler Duhamel, 4-3.
Warwick Vets had cut its deficit to 27-16 and still had room to pull out the victory. That is, until Cameron Glad worked over Ben Shalvey en route to a 15-5 victory at 171 pounds that featured a little bad blood coming in and during the match.
“I’ve wrestled him a couple times before,” Glad said. “I’m not a fan of the way he wrestles. Tonight, he head-butted me going off the mat after I head-locked him. Words were exchanged. I ran back to the center of the mat and let the fans know the only thing I wanted to do was get a win for Cumberland.”
The crowd roared as Glad stood in the middle of the mat, waiting for Shalvey’s return. It was one of those wrestling moments only the fans in attendance can appreciate. The two matmen finished their match with no further incidents and Shalvey even saved some face with a late reversal after Glad had built a 15-3 lead.
Cumberland’s Tom Lacroix lost a 7-4 verdict at 189, just missing a tying near-fall at the final buzzer.
“That’s the only match we lost that bothered me,” Cumberland coach Steve Gordon said. “Tommy got a little overaggressive early in the match.”
Lacroix trailed 7-1 before escaping and scoring a third-period takedown.
Adam Krajanowski ended the night on a rousing note, scoring a 37-second pin at 215 pounds.
Cumberland is now 12-0 on the season while Warwick Veterans fell to 11-1.
“Cumberland is a real good team,” Warwick Vets coach Mike Nappa said. “We had to have some upsets to beat them. We tried to keep the score down (in each bout). I thought that was the best way to wrestle them. Steve (Gordon) probably felt the same way.”
Gordon stood near the exit sign, taking some ribbing from Hendricken coach Hennessey and others as fans filed out of the gym.
“Absolutely, this was the match of the regular season for us,” he said. “Warwick Veterans is very solid. Mike Meyers is a great wrestler, one of the best we’ve seen in this state in a few years. Our guy, Shai Lariviere, is right there with Meyers. Shai faced a tough kid tonight (Devin Hurst) and spanked him.”
Cumberland visits defending state champion Cranston West, which is 9-3 in a rare offseason, next Thursday night, then hosts Hendricken and North Providence in a tri-meet on Feb. 17.
The state meet, where all old scores will be settled, is scheduled for Feb. 26-27 at the Providence Athletic Center next to Central High.

***
Cumberland 37, Warwick Veterans 19
285 – Josh Delannoy (C) def. Casey Beauregard 4-2, OT
103 – Erik Travers (C) def. Nate Colicci 9-0
112 – Shai Lariviere (C) def. Devin Hurst 9-2
119 – Shoneil Lariviere (C) def. Anthony Meyers 6-1
125 – Mike Meyers (WV) def. Jaron Parent 10-1
130 – Jon Maccini (C) def. Matt Brown 6-0
135 – Vincent Venticinque (WV) def. Jake Cardoza 6-2
140 – Chris Smith (C) won by technical fall over James Slack, 3:22
145 – Dante Vita (WV) pinned Richard Whitman 0:58
152 – Ricky McCoy (C) def. George Schmeider 16-4
160 – Nick Salois (WV) def. Tyler Duhamel 4-3
171 – Cameron Glad (C) def. Ben Shalvey 15-5
189 – Zakery Clift (WV) def. Tom Lacroix 7-4
215 – Adam Krajanowski (C) pinned Peter Lee 0:37