Danbury holds down No. 1 spot in Connecticut Wrestling Online’s top 10 poll

Woodland Regional’s Elias Sturdevant puts the pressure on St. Paul’s Evan Nowalski in the finals at 113 pounds in Saturday’s Berkshire Valley Invitational in Winsted. Sturdevant won by pin.

DANBURY, February 11, 2019 – The Danbury High wrestling team remains the unanimous No .1 ranked team in the state in the final regular season poll for the Connecticut Wrestling Online top 10 poll.

The Hatters (14-1) received all 17 first place votes and have been ranked No. 1 all season. Simsbury (15-1) remained at No. 2 for the second consecutive week while Trumbull (25-5), which finished second to Danbury at Saturday’s FCIAC Tournament, moved up one spot to No. 3.

Bristol Eastern (16-1) slipped one spot to No. 4 while Fairfield Warde (19-1) and Southington (13-2) finished tied for No. 5 in the poll.

Xavier and Middletown swapped spots in the poll with Xavier moving up one spot to No. 7 and the Dragons dropping to No. 8.

Killingly and Avon also swapped spots in the poll with Killingly, basking in the glow of a second straight ECC championship, moving up one spot to No. 9 while Avon (22-0) slipping back to No. 10.

There will be no poll next week. The final poll of the season will be conducted after the State Open championships on Saturday, February 23 in New Haven at the Floyd Little Athletic Center on the campus of Hillhouse High.

The four CIAC championship meets will be held this Saturday. The Class LL meet will be in Trumbull, the Class L championships will be at Bristol Central, the Class M event will be at Guilford and the Class S meet will be held at Windham High.

Wrestling begins Friday at 4:45 p.m. at all four locations. On Saturday, action begins at 9 a.m.

Danbury has won the last three Class LL championship meets and four of the last six. The Hatters will be challenged by Trumbull, Southington and Fairfield Warde.

In Class L, it looks to be a very competitive meet with two-time defending champion Bristol Eastern looking to grab a third championship pennant. But the Lancers will be pushed by Simsbury, Xavier and Middletown.

In Class M, defending champion Foran won a state-high 33 dual meets this winter. Can they hold off Killingly and undefeated Avon? Ledyard could be a dark horse contender.

And in Class S, look for Montville and Gilbert to battle for the championship with Windham, Griswold and Canton looking to contend as well. Windham has won five of the last six Class S titles.

The top six individuals in each weight class at all four meets will earn an invitation to the State Open championships.

The Connecticut Wrestling Online’s Top 10 high school wrestling poll. First-place votes in parentheses, record through Saturday, points tabulated on a 30-28-26-24-22-20-18-16-14-12-11-10-9-8-7 basis, and last week’s poll ranking. The final poll of the year will be taken after the State Open on February 23.

Week 7, February 11, 2019

Others receiving votes: Foran (33-5) 175, Montville (22-2) 108, Ledyard (21-7) 103, East Haven (19-5) 95, Waterford (18-6) 77, Gilbert (26-3) 58, Greenwich (14-5) 44, Staples 35, Newtown (11-6) 14, Canton (20-3) 11, Joel Barlow 8, Guilford (18-9) 7

Voters: Charlie Anderson, Trumbull; Matt Boissonneault, Bristol Central; Steve Bilheimer, Ledyard; Gerry deSimas, Jr., Connecticut Wrestling Online; Paul Gallo, New Canaan; Chris Gamble, Waterford; Tim Jensen, Patch Media; Larry Kelley, Norwich Bulletin; Ryan Lacey, Danbury News Times; Bryan McCarty, Platt-Meriden; Eric Misko, Farmington; Chris Piel, New Milford; Patrick Risley, Windham High; Matt Schoonmaker, Jonathan Law-Milford; Jason Shaughnessy, Fairfield Warde; Ricky Shook, Danbury