No. 10 Bristol Eastern beats Platt to secure CCC South championship

Bristol Eastern’s Trevin Guardarrama, left, works for a pin in the championship match at 138 pounds of the Greater Hartford Open in January.

A year ago, Bristol Eastern had seven placewinners (top six finishers) at the CIAC Class M championships as the Lancers finished second behind Foran of Milford. Six of those seven graduated.

But No. 10 Bristol Eastern didn’t flinch. The Lancers clinched their third straight CCC South championship on Wednesday with a 44-30 win over Platt with six pins. Eastern and Platt shared the CCC South a year ago.

“We had some kids really step up from last year, some newer wrestlers that filled some big roles in our lineup,” first-year head coach Phil Soucy said. “Some of the younger kids have really stepped up, too. So, it’s been a great season.”

Eastern won their first 13 matches of the season before dropping a 47-25 decision to Killingly in the finals of the Shoreline Duals earlier this month in Branford.

Eastern finished second at the C.J. McCormack tournament in Berlin, was tied for fourth at the Dennis Siegmann Invitational at Bristol Central, finished second at the John Gorman Tournament in Cumberland, Rhode Island and was third at the Greater Hartford Open at Hall in West Hartford.

The Lancers (17-2, 5-0 CCC South) beat Southington by four, 41-37, on January 28 and have won their first five matches in the CCC South with victories over Maloney, Berlin, Middletown, Plainville and Platt.

Eastern will be competing in the CCC Tournament this weekend at Bristol Central. The first goal is to stay healthy and then compete.

“We’ve been a pretty good tournament team and dual meet team which shows the depth of our lineup,” Soucy said. “We finished second last year (in Class M) and we did lose a lot of kids. But we put high expectations on the team to see what we did last year and try to meet the same accomplishments or be better than we have before.”

Eastern’s best finish in the CCC Tournament came in 2024 when they tied for sixth place. Eastern did win a CCC Small Division tournament in 2020 when the league had two post-season tournaments. But since 2022, the team has held one single tournament over a two-day period.

Senior Trevin Guardarrama (138) is 33-1 with 31 wins by pin or tech fall. After some time in the basketball program, Guardarrama joined the team as a junior winning 35 matches and finishing third in Class M. To be fair, Guardarrama wasn’t a rookie on the mat. He wrestled as a youngster with the Bristol Gladiators youth program.

Junior Aidyn Davis (215) missed his sophomore season with a shoulder injury from football. This year, he is 30-2. Second-year wrestler Evan Kucenski (157) had only six wins in his first season. Now, he is 31-6.

Soucy isn’t your typical first-year coach, either. He was a high school referee for years before stepping away to run the Gladiators youth program while his kids were competing at the youth level. He was Eastern’s assistant coach the last two seasons before moving into the head coaching chair in December.

Eastern finishes the dual meet season on Feb. 11 when they host Bristol Central in their annual cross-town rivalry match.

(10) Bristol Eastern 44, Platt 30
At Bristol
106 Noah Corbin (BE) tech fall Aneuys Mosquea (P), 20-5; 113 Jessus Gomez Hernandez (P) pin Ramessis Santiago (BE), 1:45; 120 Evan Martin (BE) pin Joniel Torres (P), 1:15; 126 Coltyn Masse (BE) pin Jaysean Ivester (P), 1:52; 132 Mathew Grant-Jones (P) dec. Kainan Kalisz (BE), 3-0; 138 Trevin Guardarrama (BE) pin Danerys Mosquea (P); 144 Alex Szynal (BE) dec. Dominic Spears (P), 10-3; 150 Sean Champlain (P) dec. Matthew Ottani (BE), 15-13; 157 Evan Kucenski (BE) pin Yitzhak Campos wong (P), 5:52; 165 Logan Shamper (BE) pin Mathew Paradis (P), 1:06; 175 Noah Laub (P) pin Gavin Martin (BE), 1:44; 190 Kayli Morris (P) pin John Saraceno (BE), 5:22; 215 Aidyn Davies (BE) pin Gavin Mccarty (P), 1:04; 285 Michael Smith (P) pin Miguel Rodriguez (BE), 2:43
Records: Bristol Eastern 15-2, 5-0 CCC South
Of note: With the win, Eastern clinched the CCC South championship for the third consecutive season.