More than 100 state wrestlers to compete at NHSCA national championships

More than 100 state wrestlers will be competing at the NHSCA national championship tournaments this weekend in Virginia Beach.

More than 100 wrestlers from Connecticut will be in Virginia Beach, Virginia this weekend for the 33rd annual National High School Coaches Associations (NHSCA) national championship tournaments.

Athletes will be competing in Senior, Junior, Sophomore and Freshman tournaments. Girls will have their own division and there will be competition at the middle school level. Action begins on Friday and fans can follow the tournament on FloArena and watch on FloWrestling.com.

Wrestlers need to finish in the top eight of their respective weight class to earn All-American honors.

The most recent national champions from Connecticut were Stratford’s Nico Provo, who won the Senior Division national championship at 126 pounds a year ago, and Newtown’s Nate Taylor, who won the 160 pound weight class in the Freshman Tournament.

Connecticut does have several returning All-American wrestlers. Bristol Eastern’s Ella Nichols (144) will be looking to earn All-American honors for the third time. Nichols finished fourth at 160 a year ago.

Norwalk’s Michael Bartush (195) and Guilford’s Chris Murphy (187) are returning All-Americans in the Senior Division tournament. Norwalk’s Brendan Gilchrist (195) will be looking to earn All-American honors for the second straight year in the Junior Tournament.

Two state wrestlers in the Sophomore Division event earned All-American honors a year ago and will be wrestling this weekend – Danbury’s Dom Iaquinto (182) and Harding’s Chefren Spodnik (220).

Limiting seeding was done to help ensure separation in the respective tournaments. Pre-seeds were compiled by MatScouts.com.

In the Senior Division tournament, seven state wrestlers earned pre-seeds including Bartush (195) and Fairfield Warde’s Will Ebert (160) who were seeded No. 1 in their respective weight classes. Other state wrestlers to earn seeds included Canton’s Ethan Titus (10, 113), New Milford’s Evan Lindner (12, 126), Danbury’s Kai O’Dell (7, 138), Seymour’s Anthony Deicicchi (17, 182) and Clinton’s Jordan Armstrong (14, 220).

In the Junior Division, Norwalk’s John Schneider (13, 120) earned a pre-seed. In the Sophomore Division, Canton’s Reese Titus (16, 113) and Xavier’s Kyle Levesque (15, 120) earned pre-tournament seeds.

Xavier’s Jackson Heslin (6, 120), Newtown’s Marc Maurath (17, 132) and East Hartford’s Dravyn Roberts (12, 160) were seeded in the Freshman tournament.

Ten state wrestlers were seeded in the Middle School tournament – Cole Lemovitz (4, 75), Jaxsen Bailey (8, 75), Brighton Karvoski (1, 80), Chase Kastner (7, 80), Jack Gedney (8, 85), Joseph Pellicci (10, 90), Solomon Johns (9, 100), Riley Storowuk (6, 105), Vincent Rivera (9, 127) and William Motley (9, 154).

2022 NHSCA national championships (FloArena)