Danbury’s Ryan Jack and New Canaan’s Tyler Sung win Eastern State Classic titles

Danbury’s Ryan Jack became the fifth Connecticut wrestler to win an Eastern States Classic title Saturday. (Photo courtesy Danbury wrestling program)

LOCH SHELDRAKE, N.Y., January 12, 2019 – Danbury’s Ryan Jack and New Canaan’s Tyler Sung won Eastern State Classic championships on Saturday at Sullivan Community College. It was a challenging two-day tournament with 174 teams from nine states.

Hilton, the top ranked team in New York State, outlasted Wyoming Seminary (Pennsylvania), the No. 2 ranked team in the country, 143-135½. Led by Jack and Kyle Fields, who finished third at 132 pounds, Danbury finished fourth in the tournament. New Canaan (33th place), Xavier (42) and Southington (95) also had athletes in the tournament.

Jack became the fifth Connecticut wrestler and fourth Danbury High wrestler to bring home an Eastern States Classic title. Jack went 5-0 in the tournament at 126 pounds, beating Zeke Escalera of Wyoming Seminary, 5-4 in the championship match.

Results: Saturday, January 12

After two periods, Jack had a 3-1 lead. Escalera escaped early in the third period to cut the lead to one but Jack got a takedown with 1:14 remaining to extend his lead to 5-2. Escalera escaped with 54 seconds left and Jack was penalized for stalling with four seconds remaining, trimming his lead to 5-4.

Jack had six takedowns in a 16-3 win over Ryan Burgos of Hilton, N.Y. in the semifinals. In the quarterfinals, Jack had three takedowns in the first two periods to build a 7-3 lead. He beat Chandler Merwin of Walton-Delaware Academy, 7-4.

Sung became the first New Canaan wrestler to win an Eastern States Classic title with his victory at 145 pounds. Sung beat Jonathan Spadafora of Half Hollow Hills East – a New York state high school on Long Island, 3-2.

Scoreless in the second period, Sung escaped to take a 1-0 lead only to see Spadafora take the lead with a takedown. But Sung got a two-point reversal with 23 seconds left in the second period for a 3-2 lead.

Sung outlasted Hunter Shaut of Central Valley Academy in Ilion, N.Y., in the semifinals, 1-0 with an escape with 47 seconds left in the second period.

Sung came from behind to beat Cahal Donovan of Marcelius, N.Y. in a 6-2 quarterfinal victory. Trailing 2-0 in the first period, Sung escaped and got a takedown to take a 3-2 lead. In the second period, Sung escaped again and got another takedown to take a 6-2 lead.

Danbury’s Kyle Fields (132) finished fourth while Xavier’s Michael Rapuano (106) finished seventh. Southington’s Jacob Cardozo (138) took eighth.

Results: Saturday, January 12

Former Danbury High wrestler Alan Kovacs, who now wrestles at Iona Prep in New York, finished third at 145 pounds.

Previous Eastern State Classic champions from Connecticut include Danbury’s Kevin Jack, who won titles in 2012 and 2013; Danbury’s Jakob Camacho in 2017 and Granby native Dominick Malone, who won at 126 pounds in 2012 for Wyoming Seminary.

Eastern States Classic
At Loch Sheldrake, N.Y.
Team results – 1. Hilton NY 143, 2. Wyoming Seminary (PA) 135½, 3. Massapequa NY 91, 4. Danbury 85, 5. Eastport-South Manor 84, 6. Norwich 66½, 7. Springfield Central (MA) 65, 8. Hauppauge 63½, 9. Minisink Valley 60, 10. Wantagh 56
Other CT teams: 33. New Canaan 33, 42. Xavier 28, 95. Southington 12

2019 Eastern States Classic brackets and results

Timberlane Regional-Plaistow, N.H., had eight wrestlers win medals and three finalists as the Owls outlasted No. 2 Bristol Eastern, 201-191 to win the John Gorman Memorial Tournament in Cumberland, R.I., for the first time since 2015.

The Lancers had three individual champions – Trent Thompson (106), Justin Marshall (152) and Trinidad Gonzalez (220) – and four finalists as they finished among the top two in the tournament for the sixth time in the last nine years. Eastern won the title a year ago.

Simsbury’s Ty Finn (120) won a championship along with Tolland’s Michael Angers (160) and South Windsor’s Cooper Nodden (170). Simsbury finished tied for sixth. With a pin in the finals, Angers won his fourth straight Gorman championship.

Results: Saturday, January 12

Brunswick-Greenwich improved to 14-1 with victories over Hotchkiss, 65-9; Taft, 77-6 and Marvelwood-Cornwall, 83-0. Eleven Bruins were undefeated (3-0) on the day — Will MacGillivray, Jackson Wolfram, Kaden Saad, Jojo McCurdy, Chris Perry, Luca Errico, Nick Bell, Nadji Ngbokoli, Clayton Ostrover, Tim Saunders, and Cliff Belknap. Errico (138) and Saad (120) each had three pins while McCurdy (126), Bell (145), Saunders (185) and Ngbokoli (152) each had two pins.

No. 9 Avon remained undefeated (13-0) with four victories over Jonathan Law, Westhill-Stamford, Masuk-Monroe and Harding-Bridgeport.

RHAM beat host Berlin, 45-32 to capture the 31st annual Art Powers Duals in Berlin for the second time in the past three years. The Sachems gave up just 21 points in their first three matches in the tournament.

Results: Saturday, January 12

Montville (15-2) had two individual champions as they won the Casey Dane Yates Invitational in Lebanon for the second year in a row and for the sixth time in the last seven years. The Indians beat host Lyman Memorial/Windham Tech by 13 points, 224-211.

Staples went 5-0 including a win over Mahopac, N.Y., to win the John Chaco Duals in Westport. … East Haven beat host Hand by five, 36-31 and then beat Wethersfield, 38-30 to win the third annual Hand Duals in Madison. Hand beat Bristol Central, 54-16 to take third place.

Results: Saturday, January 12