Fairfield Warde won their second tournament of the season Saturday with a victory at the TFC Kevin Miller Duals in East Hartford (Photo courtesy Jason Shaughnessy)
It was a day of celebration for the Fairfield Warde wrestling team on Saturday at the TPC Kevin Miller Duals in East Hartford.
The Mustangs beat two top 10 teams to win their second tournament of the season with victories over then-No. 2 East Hartford and No. 5 Newtown. Louis Soracco collected his 100th win and the Mustangs improved to 17-1 on the season.
The team also celebrated the 500th career win for head coach Jason Shaughnessy, the Mustangs’ Hall of Fame coach who began coaching at Fairfield High in December 1998.
“It’s a big number. You never think about the numbers and volume as you grind through each season,” he said. “Each year you try to have the best year possible. After doing it for a long time, you get some big numbers.”
Shaughnessy is just the sixth coach in state history with more than 500 career wins. Four of those five are still actively coaching – Killingly’s Rich Bowen, Derby’s Buster Jadach, Windham’s Pat Risley and Platt’s Bryan McCarty.
The strong weekend helped Fairfield Warde move up to No. 2 in the most recent Connecticut Wrestling Online top 10 poll. Warde (17-1) moved up two spots to No. 2 with a 54-11 win over Newtown, a 33-28 win over East Hartford and victories over Granby, Branford and NFA.
“We wrestled really well against Newtown right out of the gate and had some good matchups,” he said. “When you have three top teams, you are going to get some good matchups. You will win some and lose some.
“Against East Hartford, three of our top wrestlers lost but the others picked up the slack. It’s 14 guys out there. There are others who can step up,” he said.
Trailing by five with two matches remaining, Warde’s Brayden Levin (175) picked up a 10-point victory to cut East Hartford’s lead to one, 28-27. Cole Grenier (190) came up with a pin in the final match to win it for the Mustangs.
Warde is the defending Class LL champion and the defending FCIAC champion. The Mustangs already beat Danbury earlier this year for the first time in a dual meet, 42-26.
“We knew we had a good team returning,” Shaughnessy said. “We tried to latch onto every top team that we could. We wanted to get the kids ready for the postseason.”
Wednesday, Jan. 29, results and boxscores
Thursday, Jan. 30, results and boxscores
Friday, Jan. 31, results and boxscores
Saturday, Feb. 1 results and boxscores
Sunday, Feb. 2 results and boxscores
Xavier (13-1) remained No. 1 in the state top 10 poll with 16 of the 17 votes by coaches and members of the media. No. 3 Ridgefield (9-0) picked up the other first place vote.
The Falcons battled to a 205-205 tie with Shawsheen Valley Technical High out of Billerica, Mass., at the Bill James Invitational in Meuthen, Mass., on Saturday. Salem, New Hampshire was a distance third with 152 points.
Xavier had four individual champions and six finalists while Shawsheen Valley, who won the Massachusetts technical school state title a week earlier, had two champions and seven finalists.
Zach Dixon (106), Braylon Gonzalez (132), Chase Catalano (165) and Cael Loria (157) won titles for Xavier. Catalano and Dixon picked up bonus points for Xavier in the finals with technical falls while Gonzalez got a pin in his championship bout.
Ridgefield, the last undefeated team left in the state, had a quiet week with a 65-15 win over Darien and remains at No. 3.
No. 4 East Hartford (18-1) had their school-record dual meet winning streak snapped at 31 matches with the loss to Fairfield Warde on Saturday at the TPC Kevin Millar Duals. But the Hornets had a strong 46-27 win over Newtown along with dominant wins over NFA, Branford and Granby.
Newtown (11-3) remained at No. 5 despite loss to Fairfield Warde and East Hartford. The Nighthawks had victories over Bethel, NFA, Branford and Granby.
No. 6 Danbury (10-2) has won five of their last six matches. The Hatters beat Norwalk last Wednesday before securing wins over Haverhill, Mass., and Simsbury on Saturday. Danbury did drop a 42-32 decision to Timberlane Regional from Plaistow, N.H.
No. 7 Trumbull (26-1) beat Brien McMahon, 70-10 last Wednesday and finished fourth at the Connecticut Challenge in Southington.
On Saturday, Shane Ryan became the fourth member of the Ryan family to earn at least 100 career victories competing for Trumbull. Joe Ryan, Matt Ryan and Jack Ryan previously got more than 100 wins for Trumbull. Ibrahim Kadri also got his 100th career win for the Eagles.
Wednesday, Jan. 29, results and boxscores
Thursday, Jan. 30, results and boxscores
Friday, Jan. 31, results and boxscores
Saturday, Feb. 1 results and boxscores
Sunday, Feb. 2 results and boxscores
No. 8 New Milford (6-1) won their fourth tournament of the season with a three-point win over Platt, 236½ to 233½ at the Lawman Invitational in Milford. The Green Wave scored a tournament record 236½ points to win the tournament for the first time.
New Milford had four individual champions and came away with victories in two of four head-to-head matches with Platt in the finals.
Platt’s Cesar Rodriguez (120) pinned New Milford’s Chris Setear in the final in 4:47 while Panther teammate Joel Yaport (138) pinned New Milford’s Bradyn Cerra in 42 seconds. For New Milford, Alec Oberc (126) pinned Platt’s Matthew Grant-Jones in 1:00 while Green Wave teammate James Morrell (175) outlasted Platt’s Jussiel Espinal-Hernandez, 14-11.
No. 9 Foran (28-4) made their first appearance in the top 10 this season and the first appearance in the top 10 since February 2022.
Foran, which has been No. 11 in each of the four previous polls, went 5-0 last week with a 38-36 win over then-No. 7 Killingly in the championship match of the Class M/S Duals in Killingly. Foran beat New Fairfield, Windham and Avon to get to the championship match.
In the title bout, Foran had five pins and a technical fall. But the key victory came at 126 pounds when Bennett Lane earned a one-point decision over Mason Connetti, 10-9 to lift Foran.
No. 10 Southington (8-2) whipped New Britain, 72-4 earlier in the week and finished third in the Connecticut Challenge in their own gym.
Wednesday, Jan. 29, results and boxscores
Thursday, Jan. 30, results and boxscores
Friday, Jan. 31, results and boxscores
Saturday, Feb. 1 results and boxscores
Sunday, Feb. 2 results and boxscores
North Providence, R.I. won the Connecticut Challenge for the second straight year with a 208½ to 191 win over West Springfield, Mass. Southington was third with Trumbull one point behind in fourth place.
Stafford had one individual champion, four finalists and a pair of third place medalists to win the Rodney Smith Invitational in Southington with a 193½ to 165½ win over South Windsor.
Shelton (17-2) won the Brookfield Invitational for the second straight year with an 82½ point win over Masuk. The Gaels had 13 wrestlers place in the tournament with 10 in the top four spots in their respective weight classes.
Ike Blomberg won an individual title for the Gaels, who had six finalists. Shelton won their third tournament of the year.
Bristol Eastern (9-3. 4-0 CCC South) won the seventh annual Highlander Invitational in Portland for the first time by beating Canton, 217½ to 174½.
Stamford had seven girls finish in the top six of their respective weight classes to secure a 100-73 win over New Britain at the Brookfield Girls Tournament on Sunday. Amity had two individual champions and three finalists. The first dual meet between girls teams in Connecticut history was Sunday in Meriden with Maloney beating cross-town rival Platt, 45-33.
Wednesday, Jan. 29, results and boxscores
Thursday, Jan. 30, results and boxscores
Friday, Jan. 31, results and boxscores
Saturday, Feb. 1 results and boxscores
Sunday, Feb. 2 results and boxscores
The Class M/S Duals attracted the top four teams in last year’s Class M and Class S tournaments. Foran went undefeated to win the championship with a 38-36 win over then-No. 7 Killingly. Berlin finished third with a 38-37 win over Avon.
Berlin’s Nick Ebrahami (285) was named the outstanding wrestler of the tournament with RHAM winning the John Vino Team Sportsmanship Award from the tournament officials.
Sixteen wrestlers were named to the All-Tournament team: 113: Ron Woods IV, Killingly; 120: Bradley Jonasch, Killingly; 126: Calvin Sammarco, Lyman Memorial/WT and Delmazio Despard, Windham; 132: Landon Roy, Windham; 138: Eli Fagan, Avon; 144: Brady Zadora, Killingly; 150: Logan Davis, Lyman Memorial/WT and Thomas Mahorn, Foran; 157: Antonio Aspras, Foran and Aiden Dejesus, Berlin; 165: Tyquel Lucas, Foran; 175: James Hiltz, Foran; 189: Panagiotas Christakos, Foran; 215: Malachi Fowler, Windham; 285: Nick Ebrahami, Berlin
Top 10 poll, Week 5
| Tuesday, February 4, 2025 (week 5) | |||||
| Team | Rec | TW | Pts | LW | Class |
| 1. Xavier (16) | 13-1 | 2 | 476 | 1 | L |
| 2. Fairfield Warde | 17-1 | 2 | 434 | 4 | LL |
| 3. Ridgefield (1) | 9-0 | 1 | 416 | 3 | LL |
| 4. East Hartford | 18-1 | 3 | 396 | 2 | LL |
| 5. Newtown | 11-3 | 1 | 342 | 5 | L |
| 6. Danbury | 10-2 | 1 | 324 | 6 | LL |
| 7. Trumbull | 26-1 | 2 | 244 | 8 | LL |
| 8. New Milford | 6-1 | 4 | 231 | 9 | L |
| 9. Foran | 28-4 | 3 | 218 | nr | M |
| 10. Southington | 8-2 | 1 | 206 | 10 | LL |
| Also receiving votes: Killingly (31-2) 199, Platt (19-3) 75, Berlin (14-7) 68, Ledyard (19-3) 64. Bristol Eastern (9-3) 58, Shelton (17-2) 54, Avon (16-5) 23, Windham (17-8) 19, East Lyme/Norwich Tech (8-5) 10, Notre Dame-WH (12-5) and Enfield 8, Conard (15-5) and Stafford (15-5) 7 | |||||
| TW: Wins as a team at individual or dual meet tournaments. LW: Last week | |||||
| Voting this week: Charlie Anderson, Trumbull; Matt Boissonneault, Bristol Central; Mike Cunningham, Xavier; Derek Dion, Southington; Gerry deSimas, Jr., Connecticut Wrestling Online; Chris Gamble, Waterford; David Green, Nonnewaug; Chris Piel, New Milford; Tim Jensen, Patch Media, T.J. Silva, Simsbury, Paul Musso, New Fairfield, Patrick Risley, Windham High; Matt Schoonmaker, Jonathan Law-Milford; Jason Shaughnessy, Fairfield Warde; Jimmy Zanor, Norwich Bulletin | |||||
Wednesday, Jan. 29, results and boxscores
Thursday, Jan. 30, results and boxscores
Friday, Jan. 31, results and boxscores
Saturday, Feb. 1 results and boxscores
Sunday, Feb. 2 results and boxscores
International
Cronin beats Provo for final spot on U.S. national team
International
Cronin beats Provo for final spot on U.S. national team
