UConn’s club wrestling team finished second at the NCWA’s Northeast Conference tournament and is preparing for the national championship meet. (Photo courtesy Chris Warran)
UConn’s club wrestling team had two finalists and one individual champion at the recent National Collegiate Wrestling Association’s (NCWA) Northeast Conference championship tournament in Springfield.
Berlin’s Daniel Veleas won a Northeast Conference title at 133 pounds and was named the tournament’s most outstanding wrestler in the light weights (125-157) while Glastonbury’s Martial Sutton (133) finished second.
The Huskies finished second behind Springfield Technical Community College (STCC), who finished first with 189 points. UConn was second with 134½ and UMass taking third with 100½. Six STCC wrestlers finished first and the squad won the Northeast Conference title for the sixth time since 2017.
The top six wrestlers from each weight class qualified to participate in the NCWA’s national championships on March 9-11 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Eleven UConn wrestlers finished in the top six to earn bids to the nationals.
It was the first NCWA qualifying event for the Huskies since 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 season was canceled and UConn wrestled a limited schedule in 2022 that didn’t include a trip to the Northeast Conference championships.
“We performed well,” UConn head coach Chris Warran said. “There is still considerable room for improvement but the team did an excellent job of making corrections in areas necessary to be successful in the postseason.
“We are an inexperienced postseason team primarily composed of upperclassmen,” he said. “It’s a unique situation due to COVID. The only member of the team that ever wrestled at the conference tournament before was Daniel.”
Seeded fifth, Veleas went 4-0 in the tournament including a pin of top seed Aiden Yurdiga of Stony Brook in the semifinals. He had three takedowns in a 9-2 win over Ian Darling of Northeastern in the final.
In 2020, Veleas was a NCWA All-American for the Huskies, finishing seventh at 149 pounds.
Glastonbury’s Parker Sutton (141), Trumbull’s Joey Ryan (184), Andrew Nani (197) and Morgan’s Austin Daley (285) each finished third at the Northeast Conference meet for UConn with Tolland’s Eamon Toland-Matos (157) and Foran-Milford’s Pat Brogan (174) each taking fifth.
“This team has been incredibly committed all year and I’m proud of their efforts and achievements,” Warran said. “My team is composed of young men of high moral character and it’s been a pleasure to coach them this season.”
Warran said that UConn has 12 national championship qualifiers and the team will be attending the national championship meet for the first time since 2020.
The team had a fundraiser in February that raised more than $8,000 from 84 donors to help fund their trip to Puerto Rico.
“We are truly thankful for all those that donated to help support our national team trip,” Warren said. “It will, and has already, covered a variety of costs required to compete.”
While the team does get some funds from UConn, it can be a challenging process requiring up to six weeks lead time to get approval, according to Warran in the Go-Fund-Me proposal. That presents a challenge when wrestlers qualify for the national tournament just two weeks earlier at the regional tournament.
Warran thanked the wrestling family around his program. “A special thank you to all our wrestlers’ parents that have supported us, particularly the Sutton and Veleas families,” he said. “They have been a gigantic help in feeding the guys at every competition. Robert Hartling has also done a fantastic job as my assistant coach this year. He’s been critical in the development of team members and an invaluable asset to the program.”
Most members of the UConn team graduated from high schools in Connecticut.
The NCWA was founded in 1997 to provide collegiate athletes with an opportunity to compete in wrestling at a regional and national level. The NCWA helps develop programs under the school’s athletic departments, student services department and sport club departments.
The UConn club has been in existence since 2007. UConn dropped their varsity wrestling program following the 1981 season.
2023 NCWA Northeast Regional
At Springfield, Mass.
Team results – 1. Springfield Tech CC 189, 2. UConn 134½, 3. UMass 100½, 4. Maine Maritime Academy 89½, 5. Rhode Island 65½, 6. RPI (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) 57½, 7. Northeastern University 56½, 8. Stony Brook University 52½, 9. MIT 27½, 10. New Hampshire 6, 11. Fordham 1
Individual results
MEN
125 LBS
Final — Dylan Beddow (Springfield Tech) pin Mark Zavatkay (Springfield Tech), 1:09
3. Sean Sullivan (URI) pin Liam Campbell (UMass), 5:48
133 LBS
Final — Michael Gonzalez (Springfield Tech) pin Martial Sutton (UConn), 1:35
3. Matthew Clayton (Springfield Tech) pin Beckett Herman (UMass), 1:43
141 LBS
Final — Kalil Shabazz (Springfield Tech) dec. Chris Lee (ME Maritime), 2-0
3. Parker Sutton (UConn) dec. Djan Carbonell (RPI), 14-2
5. Tyler Stroup (RPI) forfeit over Noah Ramos (UMass), 0-0
149 LBS
Final — Danny Velas (UConn) dec. Ian Darling (NU), 9-2
3. Aiden Yurdiga (Stony Brook) dec. Andrew Brevot (RPI), 9-5
5. Joe Podolak (Springfield Tech) tech fall Ryan Williams (Springfield Tech), 18-1 5:00
157 LBS
Final — James Lunt (Springfield Tech) dec. Wayne Lamont (Stony Brook), 8-4
3. Elias Maita (UMass) forfeit over Evrit Roy (ME Maritime), 0-0
5. Eamon Toland Matos (UConn) dec. Gabriel Smith (NU), 14-5
165 LBS
Final — Bradford Zajac (ME Maritime) dec. Jolan Martori (Springfield Tech), 14-6
3. Reece Calvin (NU) dec. Clay Lewis (Mit), 5-2
5. Devon Hubbard (NU) pin Jared Mayo (UMass), 3:28
174 LBS
Final — Ricardo Magny (Springfield Tech) dec. Sean Hass (RPI), 8-7
3. Thomas Czartoryski (NU) dec. Brendan McCarthy (URI), 7-2
5. Pat Brogan (UConn) pin Emre Gromus (UConn), 4:48
184 LBS
Final — Peter Meshkov (Stony Brook) dec. Stephano Magny (Springfield Tech), 3-1
3. Joey Ryan (UConn) pin Jason Young (UMass), 2:00
5. Alan Van Gorder (UMass) pin Bobby Dejusus (UConn), 4:02
197 LBS
Final — Dillion Worster (ME Maritime) dec. Johnny Andre (Springfield Tech), 7-3
3. Andrew Nani (UConn) pin Davyn Peterson (Springfield Tech), 3:34
5. Nathan Schobel (ME Maritime) dec. Adam Barboza (URI), 15-7
235 LBS
Final — Shawn Conniff (Springfield Tech) pin Jeffery Worster (ME Maritime), 6:40
3. Ed Wild (URI) pin Jeremy Taylor (URI), 1:11
5. Josh Kravets (UMass) dec. Tom Panenccasio (UConn), 12-7
285 LBS
Final — Jacob Gariepy (Springfield Tech) dec. William Randall (URI), 9-0
3. Austin Daley (UConn) dec. Dylan Nawn (UMass), 4-1
5. Ramell Acquah (Springfield Tech) forfeit over Xavier Lamas (UMass)
Outstanding wrestler: Daniel Veleas, UConn (lower weights); Shawn Coniff, STCC (upper weights)
WOMEN
116: Final – Hannah Ung (NU) dec. Maria Leyba (NU), 9-3
136: Final — Sophia Carson (NH) pin Carmen Graham (NU), 1:49
2023 NCWA Northeast Regional brackets and results (FloArena)
