Norwich’s Maverick Beckwith is a STAC Tournament Champion in the 102 weight class. (Photo from STAC Scores)

OWEGO – Over the weekend, the Norwich Purple Tornado wrestling team competed in the STAC Tournament held in Owego, where they came in fourth place. Horseheads won the tournament with 194 points.

Norwich had one champion wrestler with Maverick Beckwith earning the victory in the 102 finals while Mason Edwards came in second for the 172 class. Other Norwich wrestlers did make the consolation finals and even Senior Nate Murphy earned sixth place after losing in the semi-finals.

Maverick Beckwith went 3-0 in the tournament, picking up his final win with a technical fall by 23-5 over Chenango Valley’s Travis White while the other wins came on pins by less than three minutes.

Beckwith, who is only an eighth grader, is 24-5 on the season with 12 pins overall.

Mason Edwards lost a heart-breaker in his finals match in the 172 pound weight class in a 10-0 major decision to Windsor’s Dominick Weaver. This loss was his first on the season. Mason won three matches in the tournament, including a quick 22 second pin on Johnson City’s Aiden Curtis in the first match. He is 13-1 on the season with 11 pins.

Leading Norwich in the consolation finals were Regan Roach, Yanni Drapronitis, and Robert McIntyre, who all earned third place in their respective weight class.

Roach, in the 132 class, won two matches before seeing a loss on a 4-0 decision. That didn’t discourage him from going all out to win the next and final two matches. He was able to lay down the pin on Chenango Valley’s Kyle Whitmarsh in 3:37 while winning in a close 10-8 decision against Sus Valley’s Mark Moelder for the finals. Roach is currently 19-9 on the season with seven pins in his junior year.

Yanni Drapaniotis stands strong at the 145 class for the Purple Tornado this season. Despite losing some tough matches, including a pin in the tournament, he is striving with a 21-5 record in his first season. He held on to a 2-0 decision and won on a long 4:21 pin before defeating Corning’s Clayton Smith by a 8-6 decision in the finals.

Robert McIntyre continues to stand tall in the 285 weight class for his final season. He didn’t lose confidence after suffering the loss by pin to Maine-Indwell’s Sam Stanton in the first round of the tournament. Instead, he picked himself up and won the last three matches, which included taking down Stanton in 1:27 to earn third place. McIntyre has 13 pins this season with 32 in his overall varsity career.

Senior Nate Murphy was fortunate enough to take home a sixth place finish. In the first round, he defeated Owego’s own Gairit Hodson in a 1:23 pin before losing the final three matches. He had battled it out with Corning’s Tyler Farrand before being pinned at the 4:04 mark.

Norwich will travel to Bainbridge to take on the Bainbridge-Guilford/Afton/Harpursville Bears on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. This is expected to be Norwich’s final regular season match before Section IV Qualifiers.