High School

Three Connecticut wrestlers win titles at George Bossi Lowell Holiday Invitational

by
Gerry deSimas, Jr. , Connecticut Wrestling Online
December 28, 2022

Avon senior Isaiah Adams went 5-0 with three pins at 120 pounds to win an individual title Wednesday at the George Bossi Lowell Holiday Tournament.

Avon High wrestling coach John McLaughlin didn’t bring his entire Falcon squad to the 55th annual George Bossi Lowell Holiday Invitational. Most were not ready for this level of competition.

But three Falcons were more than ready to step up to the challenge.

Avon All-American Isaiah Adams and unseeded Jonah Weber each won titles at the tournament Wednesday night at the Recreation Center on the campus of UMass-Lowell in Lowell, Massachusetts.

Adams and Weber were two of three individual champions from Connecticut with three other wrestlers finishing second and another four Nutmeg State wrestlers taking third. Norwalk’s Brandon Gilchrist (195) won his second straight Lowell title.

Two victories in the finals lifted Shawsheen Valley Tech from Billerica, Mass., to the tournament championship with a one-point win over Haverhill, Mass., 159½ to 158½, the closest finish in the event since Concord, N.H. won by 1½ points in 2006.

A pin from James Tildsey in the finals at 126 and a six-point decision from Sidney Tildsey at 138 final lifted Shawsheen Valley to the championship.

The top team from Connecticut in the field of 86 teams was Newtown in 12th place with 111½ points. The Nighthawks had three medalwinners, finishing in the top eight of their respective weight class.

Southington finished 13th with 108½ points followed by New Fairfield (107½) and Norwalk (103) in 14th and 15th place, respectively. Southington and New Fairfield each had three medalwinners while Norwalk had four.

It’s the first time since 2015 that Connecticut didn’t have a team place in the top 10.

Adams, who earned All-American honors at the National High School Coaches Association tournament at Virginia Beach last March, won the Lowell championship at 120 pounds with a 7-3 win over Brayton Carbone of Shawsheen Valley.

Two takedowns gave Adams a 4-1 lead after one period in the finals and a two-point near fall in the third period upped his lead to 6-1.

In the semifinals, Adams beat New Fairfield’s Joe Mahoney, 14-4. Tied at 4-4 early in the second period, Adams scored 10 unanswered points to advance to the finals. Adams finished 5-0 with three pins in the tournament.

Weber was unseeded but he went 6-0 with a pair of pins to win his first Lowell championship with a 9-8 victory over Elliott Humphries of Minnechaug Regional in Wilbraham, Mass., just outside of Springfield.

Humphries took a one-point lead with a two-point takedown with 1:19 remaining in the match but Weber got a reversal with 36 seconds to go to take the lead for good.

Weber beat Luke Connelly of Northeast/Bishop Fenwick co-op, 8-2 in the semifinals and beat No. 1 seed Aidan Williams of Windham, N.H., in the quarterfinals by pin in 2:57.

Avon’s third wrestler was Roel Johnson, who finished eighth at 160 pounds with a 4-3 record. The Falcons finished 25^th in the tournament.

Gilchrist went 6-0 with four pins to win back-to-back titles with a 7-5 win over Imanol Taveras of Hope in Providence, R.I. He is just the second Connecticut wrestler to win multiple titles in the tournament and the first since Southington’s Paul Calo won twice in 2018 and 2019.

Norwalk’s Phoenix Gardella (126) was pinned by top seed James Tildsley of Shawsheen in 1:21 in the final but went 5-1 in the tournament with three pins.

Fairfield Ludlowe’s Donnel Young (152) advanced to the final but dropped a 9-7 decision to David Pento, Jr., of Londonderry, N.H.

Young tied the match at 6-6 thanks to a takedown with 43 seconds remaining but Pento got an escape five seconds later and took a 9-6 lead with a takedown of his own with 29 second left. Young went 5-1 with three pins in the tournament.

Stratford’s James Duhancik was pinned in the final at 220 by Patrick Deslauriers of Ashland, Mass., in 3:12. Duhancik went 4-1 in the tournament with three pins.

New Fairfield’s Thomas Bock (145), Newtown’s Fisher Stites (170), Stratford’s Jake Kszywanos (195) and New Fairfield’s Doug Traynor (285) each finished third with Southington’s Colton Thorpe (138), Josh Howard (145) and Newtown’s Luca Manfredi (152) each finishing fourth.

Lewis Mills’ Jack Gedney (106), Fairfield Warde’s Dominick Spadaro (126) and Dylan Sherman (132) and Simsbury’s Chad Mairano (170) each finished fifth.