With three champions and five finalists, Southington won the 38th Lancer Invitational in Waterford on Saturday (Dec. 16) for the third time and the first time since 2019. Chase Kastner (106), Jake Rivera (132) and Josh Howard (157) won for Southington with Rivera winning in overtime.
Southington beat NFA for the tournament championship, 222-194 with New London finishing third. Lyman Memorial/Windham Tech finished fourth with Hunter Sanchez (120) and Timothy Breault (285) winning individual titles.
Old Lyme’s Chase Catalano (175) earned Outstanding Wrestler honors after his 9-0 shutout win over Ferhat Baha Akdemir of East Providence in the finals.
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With five individual champions and six finalists, New Milford won the 34th C.J. McCormack Invitational in Berlin for the first time with 227½ points. Host Berlin was second with 203½ points with defending Class M champion Avon taking third with 197½ points.
Adrian Photopoulos (120), Tyler Roussel (132), Danilo Scalizitti (165), Adam Oberc (175) and Chris Reiss (215) each won championships. Photopoulos won 1-0 in the finals.
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Resuming a tradition that had ended in 2019 after 17 consecutive years, Plainville hosted the Plainville Invitational with Killingly putting seven wrestlers in the finals and winning three. Killingly outlasted Platt, 217-185½ to win the tournament.
The tournament was running long so the coaches voted to not to run the final round of consolation round bouts, which included the third place and fifth place bouts.
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Shelton set a new tournament record with 266 points to win the Darien Invitational, beating Bunnell, 266-186½. The old mark was 187 set by Darien a year ago when the Blue Wave beat Bunnell by a half point for the title.
Shelton had nine finalists and three individual champions — Carlos Sanchez(113), Mark Nitsche (165) and Pat Dabrowski (215). The Gaels had 14 wrestlers finish in the top four of their respective weight classes.
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With four individual champions, East Hartford won the Skip Ardan Invitational at Manchester High for the second time in three years with a seven-point win over RHAM, 222-215. Trumbull was third with 179½ points.
Jaeckez Mendez (144), Yaxier Rivera (157), Drayvn Roberts (175) and Sammy Montovani (215) each won their respective weight classes with a pin. The Hornets last won the tournament in 2021. The 2022 event was postponed due to a COVID-19 outbreak at Manchester High.
It was the 36th edition of the tournament that dates back to 1981 but missed four years in the early 2000s.
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Fairfield Warde won the Guilford Invitational for an eighth time with 251 points ahead of Newtown (169) and Xavier (163½). But don’t forget that Newtown had four wrestlers competing at the 31st annual Beast of the East tournament in Newark, Delaware while Xavier had six wrestlers at Beast of the East.
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With four individual champions and five finalists, host Fairfield Ludlowe captured the Ludlowe Nick Garofollo Invitational for the second straight season and for the seventh time. Ludlowe scored 244 points to finish ahead of Stratford (208½) and Enfield (168½).
Brunswick School from Greenwich was second out of 23 schools at the Battle at the Bay tournament at Tabor Academy in Marion, Massachusetts. With 187 points, the Bruins finished behind Northfield Mt. Hermon, who scored 261 points.
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Wrestling up a weight class at 175, Jack Degl (8-1) was the lone champion for the Bruins. Three other Brunswick wrestlers also made the finals — co-captain Michael Accetta (10-1) at 132, Alec Harned (10-1) at 144 and co-captain Kyle Pagnani (8-2) at 157.
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Last week, Trumbull, Fairfield Warde and Danbury each had 11 pins in dual meet victories. Trumbull beat Darien, 83-0 on Wednesday while Warde topped Westhill, 75-3. Danbury dominated New Canaan, 72-6 on Thursday. The state record for most pins in a dual meet is 13, held by Danbury (2004), Stafford (2003) and New Milford (1990).
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Danbury’s Deydon Soto had the second fastest pin in state history at 132 pounds, according to the Connecticut High School Wrestling Record Book. Soro pinned Braden Rohn of Saucon Valley of Hellertown, Pa., at the Beast of the East tournament in Delaware. The 132 pound record is six seconds set by Paul Chavez of Oxford in 2011.
Gerry deSimas, Jr., is the editor and founder of Connecticut Wrestling Online. He is an award-winning writer and has been covering sports in Connecticut and New England for more than 40 years. He was inducted into the New England High School Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2018.