Two-time national champion Calli Gilchrist, left, and Joel Barlow’s Scott Romano are Connecticut’s winners of the Tricia Saunders Award and Dave Schultz Award from the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
Two wrestlers have been named as the state winners of two excellence awards from the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
Joel Barlow senior Scott Romano has been selected as the state winner of the Dave Schultz High School Excellence Award while Norwalk’s Calli Gilchrist, a senior at Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, was selected as the state winner of the Tricia Saunders High School Excellence Award.
Each award recognizes and honors wrestlers for their excellence in wrestling, scholastic achievement, citizenship and community service.
Romano (34-4) is a three-sport athlete at Joel Barlow, playing football, wrestling and lacrosse. In wrestling, he won his fourth straight Class M championship in February, becoming one of just 14 wrestlers in state history to win four straight state titles.
On the football field, he helped Barlow win a Class SS state championship as a junior in 2023. Earlier this year as a senior, he ran for a team-leading 1,106 yards and 16 touchdowns.
Gilchrist, currently ranked No. 3 in the country at 120 pounds by USA Wrestling, FloWrestling and the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, won two CIAC Girls Invitational championships at Norwalk High before transferring to Choate Rosemary Hall where she has won the last two Prep School national championships.
Gilchrist went 20-0 against girls as a senior this season, winning the New England title, Eastern States Classic and Beast of the East championship. She helped Choate Rosemary-Hall win their first New England championship. As a junior, she was 14-0 against the girls and finished fifth in New England in the boys tournament.
When she was at Norwalk High, Gilchrist became the first girl to make the finals of the FCIAC boys tournament in 2023.
Gilchrist, who also participates in crew and track and field, won the Jimmy Detrixhe Scholar Athlete award in February at the Prep School national championship meet for excellence in academics and athletics.
She is involved in Dylan’s Wings of Change, fostering empathy and courage within schools. She has done volunteer work at Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services and interned with the New Haven State Attorney’s Office, as well as spending time as a volunteer youth wrestling coach and mentor.
Gilchrist will be attending Brown University in the fall.
“It’s a privilege to honor these student-athletes, and we take great pride in following their continued success at the collegiate and international levels — both in competition and academics — as they grow into the next generation of leaders and role models in wrestling,” said Lee Roy Smith, the executive director of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
The Dave Schultz award was first awarded in 1996 to honor Schultz, the Olympic and world champion who was murdered in January 1996. The Tricia Saunders award was first presented in 2014 to recognize Saunders, a four-time world champion and women’s wrestling pioneer.
