Strong week for No. 2 Ridgefield, little change in top 10 poll
No. 2 Ridgefield won their first tournament of the year Saturday with a victory at the Greater Hartford Open at Hall in West Hartford. (Photo courtesy Leigh Busby)
With an eye on championship tournaments in February and March, Ridgefield High wrestling coach Joe Regan adjusted the Tigers’ schedule this winter.
He still has Ridgefield competing in challenging events – just not as many. He wants this Tigers healthy and prepared to face the gauntlet of championship tournaments.
It begins with the FCIAC championships, the Class LL championships, State Open and New England championships in four consecutive weeks.
“We want to make sure they are healthy and hungry going toward the end of the season, Regan said. “We have a lot of firepower and high caliber kids.”
The undefeated Tigers (7-0, 5-0 FCIAC East) beat three-time defending FCIAC champion Fairfield Warde last week by nine points, 37-28, and followed that up by winning the Greater Hartford Open for the first time on Saturday with a 4½-point win over Fairfield Warde.
The Tigers, who are No. 2 in this week’s Connecticut Wrestling Online top 10 poll, had four individual champions and five finalists.
Cole Desiano (113), Dylan Meyers (132), John Carrozza (144) and Leo Moore (150) won individual titles for Ridgefield with Simon Rodriguez (126) finishing second. Meyers was named the tournament’s outstanding wrestler.
Fairfield Warde (6-1, 4-1 FCIAC East) had two individual champions and three finalists at the Greater Hartford Open that featured three top 10 teams (Ridgefield, Warde, Southington).
Saturday, Jan. 17 results and boxscores
Friday, Jan. 16 results and boxscores
Wednesday, Jan. 14 results and boxscores
Xavier remained No. 1 in the top 10 poll followed by Ridgefield, Fairfield Warde and Danbury. The top seven spots in the poll remained the same as last week with Trumbull coming in at No. 5, New Milford at No. 6 and Foran-Milford at No. 7.
Bristol Eastern earned a spot in the top 10 for the first time this season at No. 9 with Notre Dame-West Haven slipping two spots to No. 10.
No. 1 Xavier (5-4) finished fourth at their own Colter Abely Midseason Classic at Mercy on Saturday behind teams from Scituate, Rhode Island (353½), Spaulding, Vt. (343½) and Bishop Hendricken from Rhode Island (316½).
It’s the first time in the tournament’s 11-year history that the top three spots were taken by out-of-state teams. Scituate is the first out-of-state winner of the event.
The Falcons, who are 3-0 against in-state competition, were the top state team in the tournament followed by Trumbull, who was fifth. Newtown finished eighth.
At Colter Abely, wrestlers are broken up into four pools where they can wrestle up to three matches. The winners of each pool advance to the semifinals. The semifinal winners battle for the championship in each weight class while the semifinal losers compete for third place.
Josh Perez (106), Zack Dixon (120) and Alexander Depratti (126) won individual titles for Xavier. Other state winners included Simsbury’s Giuliano Sirianni (138), Trumbull’s Cody Walcott (150), Newtown’s Antonio Arguello (157) and Jake Maddox (175) and Cheshire’s Carter Marciano (285).
Fairfield Warde’s Dylan O’Brian (190) has Conard’s Owen Holmes on his back during the 190 pound final at the Greater Hartford Open in West Hartford. O’Brian won with a pin in 2:33. (Photo courtesy Leigh Busby)
Warde’s Dylan O’Brien (190) and Jose Abreau Barillas (285) each won titles at the 22nd annual Greater Hartford Open while Jude Grammatico (132) finished second. It was the best finish ever for Warde at the tournament and the most competitive tournament since 2020 when Killingly beat Southington by 4½ points. Southington beat Killingly in 2016 by 4½ points.
No. 4 Danbury (6-0, 3-0 FCIAC West) beat Stamford last Wednesday, 49-23 and was fifth at the Woburn Invitational in Woburn, Mass., on Saturday. Danbury’s Harrison Muller won at 175 pounds.
No. 5 Trumbull (9-1) finished fifth at Colter Abely tournament in Middletown. Cody Walcott won at 150 pounds for Trumbull while Shane Ryan finished second at 157 pounds. Other top four finishes came from Jonathan Kubie (215) and Brandon Macura (285), who each finished fourth.
Saturday, Jan. 17 results and boxscores
Friday, Jan. 16 results and boxscores
Wednesday, Jan. 14 results and boxscores
No. 6 New Milford (4-0, 2-0 SWC Colonial) won their second tournament of the season thanks to their depth. The Green Wave had five finalists, two wrestlers taking third and two wrestlers finishing fourth.
New Milford won the 40th annual New Milford Tournament for the record 21st time with a 16½ point win over Berlin (their highest finish at the tournament). It was the fifth straight win for the Green Wave — the second longest win streak in tournament history. New Milford won six straight from 2006-11.
No. 7 Foran (16-1) won the Stony Creek Duals in Branford for the second straight year on Saturday with a 54-27 win over Wilton in the championship match. Foran advanced to the final with victories over Joel Barlow, Branford and Waterford, 59-23. Waterford beat Middletown, 48-36 to finish third.
No. 8 Southington (8-1) moved up one spot this week after a 61-14 win over Hall on Wednesday and a fourth place finish at the Greater Hartford Open.
Bristol Eastern (9-0, 3-0 CCC South) moves into the top 10 for the first time this season at No. 9 after beating Middletown, 60-17 last Wednesday and a third place finish at the Greater Hartford Open.
Trevin Guardarrama (138) and Aidyn Davies (215) won individual titles for the Lancers at the GOD with Evan Martin (120) finishing second.
The Lancers are undefeated with significant victories over RHAM, Simsbury and Windham and conference wins over Maloney, Berlin and Middletown. Eastern was second at the C.J. McCormack tournament in Berlin and tied for fourth at the Dennis Siegmann Invitational at Bristol Central.
Notre Dame-West Haven (14-3) slipped two spots to No. 10. Notre Dame dropped a 38-34 decision to Amity last Wednesday but picked up four wins with victories over West Haven, Fitch co-op, New Canaan and St. Joseph on Saturday.
Saturday, Jan. 17 results and boxscores
Friday, Jan. 16 results and boxscores
Wednesday, Jan. 14 results and boxscores
* * * *
At the 28th Ben Aleks Duals in Enfield, Ledyard won five matches to win the round robin tournament for the first time. Ledyard (10-2) beat Longmeadow, Mass., Stafford, Wethersfield, Rockville and Enfield. The deciding match was a 53-30 win over Stafford, who finished second with a 4-1 record.
At the 23rd Griswold Mid-Season Invitational, Glastonbury had two individual champions and five finalists to win the tournament for the first time with a 214½ to 197½ win over Barrington, Rhode Island. Barrington finished second for the fourth time in the last five years.
Brunswick in Greenwich won their own Brunswick Invitational Tournament (BIT) for the 25th time in 51 years that the event has been held. Seventeen Bruins finished in the top six of their respective weight classes as Brunswick won by 95½ points over Eagle Hill from Hardwick, Mass. Greenwich High and Hopkins School from New Haven finished tied for third.
Everett Holligan (99), Jack Degl (165) and Nikki Krause (190) won individual titles for the Bruins.
* * * *
New Canaan head coach Paul Gallo earned his 400th career victory last Wednesday when the Rams beat Wilton, 41-34. After Saturday’s matches, Gallo has a record of 403-275-5 in 34 years behind the bench.
Gallo began coaching at New Canaan in 1989-90 and coached 30 years through 2018-19. He took a step back to be an assistant coach for three years. But he took over the head coaching job again four years ago in 2022-23.
His best season, in terms of victories, came in 2009-10 when the Rams were 22-3. A year ago, New Canaan went 20-4. This year, the Rams are 10-4.
Gallo is the 14th coach in state history to win more than 400 dual meets. Nine of those 14 coaches are still coaching today including Killingly’s Rich Bowen, who has won more matches than any other coach in state history. Bowen currently has a career record of 749-180-2. His Trailblazers are 16-1 this season.
Saturday, Jan. 17 results and boxscores
Friday, Jan. 16 results and boxscores
Wednesday, Jan. 14 results and boxscores
Connecticut Wrestling Online’s top 10 high school wrestling poll for the 2025-26 season. First-place votes in parentheses, record through Saturday, points tabulated on a 30-28-26-24-22-20-18-16-14-12-11-10-9-8-7 basis, and last week’s poll ranking.
| Week 3, Monday, January 19, 2026 | |||||
| Team | Rec. | TW | Pts. | LW | Class |
| 1. Xavier (13) | 5-4 | 1 | 390 | 1 | L |
| 2. Ridgefield | 7-0 | 1 | 362 | 2 | LL |
| 3. Fairfield Warde | 6-1 | 1 | 332 | 3 | L |
| 4. Danbury | 6-0 | 0 | 300 | 4 | LL |
| 5. Trumbull | 9-1 | 2 | 261 | 5 | LL |
| 6. New Milford | 4-0 | 2 | 256 | 6 | L |
| 7. Foran | 16-1 | 3 | 210 | 7 | M |
| 8. Southington | 8-1 | 1 | 198 | 9 | LL |
| 9. Bristol Eastern | 9-0 | 0 | 154 | nr | M |
| 10. Notre Dame-WH | 14-3 | 0 | 150 | 8 | M |
| TW: Dual meet or individual tournaments won by team; LW: Last week’s poll | |||||
| Also receiving vote: Killingly (16-1) 137. Newtown (7-2) 127, Amity 72, Shelton 39, Plainville 38, Glastonbury 27, Platt 24, Berlin 23, Wilton 20, Simsbury 9, New Canaan 7, Ledyard 7, New Britain 7 | |||||
| Voting this week: Charlie Anderson, Trumbull; Matt Boissonneault, Bristol Central; Gerry deSimas, Jr., Connecticut Wrestling Online; Derek Dion, Southington; Chris Gamble, Waterford; David Green, Nonnewaug; Chris Piel, New Milford; John McLaughlin, Avon; Paul Musso, New Fairfield, ; Patrick Risley, Windham; Matt Schoonmaker, Jonathan Law-Milford; Jason Shaughnessy, Fairfield Warde; Jimmy Zanor, Norwich Bulletin. Did not vote: Mike Cunningham, Xavier | |||||