Mahoney Places Third, Qualifies for New England Championships

Dedham High senior wrestler Frank Mahoney placed third in the 171 lbs. weight class at the MIAA All-State Wrestling Championships this weekend at Salem High School’s Veteran’s Memorial Field House.

Mahoney fell to the wily Juan Rodriguez of Lawrence in the semifinals by a 5-1 decision. Rodriguez would go on to capture the title at 171 against Shawsheen Tech’s Ryan Cassidy.

The consolation semifinal contest saw a rematch of the Division 3 state finals on Feb. 18. This time however, Mahoney was able to prevail, beating Thomas Flibbotte of Cohasset with a 6-1 decision.

The Dedham grappler wrapped up third place with an 8-3 decision over Sean Fagan of Arlington, and will represent Dedham High and Massachusetts at the New England Interscholastic Wrestling Championships on March 4 in New Haven, Conn.

On day one of the meet, Mahoney beat Lexington’s Alex Lieber by technical fall in the second preliminary round, and moved on to face Natick’s Glen Duffy in the quarterfinals. Mahoney earned a 9-2 decision and advanced to the second day of competition.

After placing sixth last year, Mahoney was looking forward to making some noise this time around.

“I got put in a good spot,” he said after Friday’s quarterfinal win. “I’m looking forward to upsetting some people. I just want to take it one match at a time and get that title in the bag.”

Also representing Dedham was Brian Coakley, but he failed to win his first match at the meet.

Coakley dropped an 8-5 decision to Mark Pinto of Milford in the preliminary round, and lost to Winchester’s Nick Cashion by an 8-1 decision in the consolation round quarterfinals.