Little change in state top 10 poll with Danbury, Simsbury still leading

Danbury’s Tyrell Jones, right, puts the pressure on Brien McMahon’s Ben VanSteen in a recent dual meet at 182 pounds. Jones won with a pin. (Photo courtesy Danbury High wrestling)

There was little change in top 10 of the Connecticut Wrestling Online state poll. For the fifth consecutive week this season, undefeated and defending New England champion Danbury (8-0) is the unanimous selection as the No. 1 team in the state.

There was no change in the next five spots with No. 2 Simsbury (5-0), No. 3 Fairfield Warde (10-0), No. 4 Xavier (5-0), No. 5 Bristol Eastern (6-0) and No. 6 Southington (8-1) in the same spots as they were a week ago.

Simsbury won their second tournament of the season on Saturday by winning the 20th annual Ridgefield Challenge. The Trojans were the first Connecticut team to win the tournament since Hand captured the event in 2012.

Fairfield Warde won three bouts on Friday to remain undefeated while Xavier had a light week with a win over Foran, 39-30 last Wednesday. Bristol Eastern was third at the Connecticut Challenge and 19 points ahead of Southington in fourth place. West Springfield, Mass., and Cumberland, R.I. were the top two teams at the Connecticut Challenge. West Springfield (27-2-1) is ranked No. 4 in the latest Massachusetts team rankings.

Trumbull and Bristol Central swapped spots with Trumbull moving up one spot to No. 7 and undefeated Bristol Central (17-0) dropping one position to No. 8.

Staples and Killingly also swapped spots with Staples at No. 9 this week and Killingly (16-2) at No. 10. Killingly had their school-record dual meet winning streak snapped at 36 with a loss in the Carl Snitkin Duals but head coach Rich Bowen became the career leader for wins in state history with Killingly winning two matches on Saturday.

The big change in the poll this week was Ledyard, who came in at No. 11, 24 points out of the top 10. The Colonels didn’t gather a vote last week but got 124 votes this week after beating No. 9 Staples, 39-36 and topping NFA in the championship match of the Carl Snitkin Duals, 46-29. Ledyard (15-4) has won 10 straight dual meets.

Branford (15-1) had 49 votes a week ago and more than doubled it this week with 117 votes, good enough for 12th place in the poll. Branford won their own Shoreline Scuffle tournament for the second straight year with a tournament record 211 points.

There are some top 10 matchups this week with No. 6 Southington at No. 2 Simsbury on Wednesday night with the lead in the CCC West on the line. And on Saturday, Simsbury travels to Danbury to take on the top-ranked Hatters, No. 13 Nashoba Valley Regional in Bolton, Mass., and Timberlane Regional from Plaistow, N.H., in a challenging quad-meet.

No. 10 Killingly travels to No. 11 Ledyard on Wednesday night in another ECC showdown.

Week 5, Tuesday, January 28

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.