2015 State Open
At New Haven
Team scores: 1. Newtown 159; 2. Danbury 112½; 3. New Milford 110½; 4. Simsbury 100; 5. Fairfield Warde 98; 6. Trumbull 88; 7. Xavier 80; 8. Windham 65½; 9. Southington 57; 10. Montville 56; 11. New Fairfield 53½; 11. NFA 53½; 13. Foran 51; 14. Somers 45; 15. South Windsor 44; 16. Ledyard 42; 17. Killingly 41; 18. Branford 40; 18. Haddam-Killing 40; 20. Lyman/Windham 39; 20. Suffield/Windsor Locks/East Granby 39; 22. New London 38; 23. New Britain and Nonnewaug 33; 25. Berlin 32; 26. Immaculate/Joel Barlow 29; 27. Fairfield Ludlow 28; 28. Waterford 27; 29. Farmington, Ridgefield and Terryville 26; 32. Bristol Central 25½; 33. Hall 25; 34. Bethel 24½; 35. Avon and Morgan 24; 37. Daniel Hand 22½; 38. Newington 22; 39. Conard 20; 39. Platt Tech/West Haven and Woodstock Academy 20; 42. Portland 19½; 43. Middletown and Notre Dame-Fairfield 19; 45. Westhill 17½; 46. Platt High14½; 47. E.O. Smith, Harding and St. Bernard/Norwich Tech 13; 50. Manchester and Tolland 12; 52. Bristol Eastern and Granby 11; 54. New Haven and Wolcott Tech 10; 56. Glastonbury and Plainville 9; 58. Ellis Tech, Northwestern and Pomperaug 8; 61. Fitch Griswold, and Shelton 6; 64. East Lyme, Maloney, Seymour and Staples ,5; 68. East Catholic; East Hartford, Gilbert, New Canaan and Wilton 4; 73. Amity, Bacon Academy, Guilford and Weston 3; 77. Masuk 2; 78. Jonathan Law and Stratford 1; 80. Enfield, Fermi, Derby, St. Paul, Stamford, Norwalk, Canton, Greenwich, Wethersfield, Greenwich, Bolton, East Windsor 0
Individual results
106: Final -- Zachary Murillo, Southington dec. Jakob Camacho, Danbury, 10-2; 3. Tristan Haviland, Trumbull dec. Alex Starr, Lyman/Windham, 6-1; 5. Robert Hartling, E.O. Smith dec. Gino Esposito, Foran, 2-1
113: Final -- Alec Opsal, New Fairfield dec. Matt Foster, NFA, 13-11; 3. Devon Schoenberger, South Windsor dec. Luca Crudo, Newtown, 3-1; 5. Patrick Moynihan, Xavier dec. Matthew Dowler, St.Bern/NorwTech, forfeit
120: Final -- Kyle Lindner, New Milford dec. Jacob Martin, Windham, 11-1; 3. Ryan Luth, Foran dec. Matthew Conte, Westhill, 4-2; 5. Joel Morth, Montville dec. Ryan Angers, Tolland, 7-2
126: Final -- Timmy Kane, Fairfield Warde dec. Jeremy Fields, Danbury, 1-0; 3. Alejandro Paulino, New London dec. Edward Lovely, Newtown, 7-2; 5. Sebastian Ruffino, Windham pin Chris Oyola, Platt
132: Final -- Cross Cannone, Trumbull pin Zachary Bylykbashi, Southington 2:55; 3. Thomas Wynosky, Montville dec. Colin Storm, Ridgefield, 2-0; 5. Elliott Wilion, Terryville dec. Justin Peterson, Danbury, injury default
138: Final -- Charles Kane, Fairfield Warde dec. Kieran Duggan, Nonnewaug, 5-1; 3. James Leuci, Newtown dec. Samuel Lindblom, Waterford, 7-1; 5. Bryan Rojas, New Milford dec. Mason Rambarose, Portland, 8-2
145: Final -- Keith Fernandes, Simsbury dec. Emmett LiCastri, Immaculate/Joel Barlow, 5-3, OT; 3. Daniel Ebert, Fairfield Warde pin Ashton Gyenizs, Daniel Hand 3:24; 5. Nicholas Temple, Branford pin Grayson Adler, Haddam-Killingworth
152: Final -- Joe Accousti, Newtown dec. Graysen Deluca, Woodstock Acad., 6-3; 3. Brett Leonard, New Milford dec. Chase Lind, Fairfield Ludlowe, 4-3; 5. Brendan Zotti, Newington dec. Tyler Burlinson, New Fairfield, 7-2
160: Final -- Max Odell, South Windsor dec. Jacob Parker Berry, Somers, 3-0; 3. Stephen Briganti, Trumbull dec. Joshua Nelson, Bristol Centra, 3-2; 5. Andrew D’Amico, New Fairfield dec. Connor Lemay, Newtown, 2-1
170: Final -- Anthony Falbo, Newtown pin Austin Caffrey, Killingly, 0:43; 3. Jeremy Eliades, Berlin dec. Seve Burgos, Xavier, 4-2; 5. Sean Penney, Simsbury dec. Joseph Ryan, Trumbull injury default
182: Final -- Juan Garcia, Danbury dec. Dakota Carden, Branford, 11-1; 3. Josh Graves, New Britain dec. Paul LaRosa, Haddam-Killingworth, 3-1; 5. Brendan MacIntyre, Bethel dec. Daniel Contino, Ledyard, 8-2
195: Final -- Khamri Thomas, Suff/WLocks/EGranby dec. Jacob Feldman, Simsbury, 6-5; 3. Adam Patsun, Somers pin Andy Hubina, Newtown, 1:32; 5. Connor Lemley, Killingly pin Denzel Phillips, New Milford
220: Final -- Khaleed Exum, Norwich Free dec. Daric Johnson, Ledyard, 5-2; 3. Seiji Arzuaga, Windham dec. Jordan Corrigan, Morgan, 3-1; 5. Ogadinma Ikani, Hall dec. Jared Willsey, Bethel, 4-3
285: Final -- Chidiebere Broderick, Xavier dec. Luke Edmondson, Foran, 14-3; 3. Gino Bonalumi, Avon dec. Hakim Fleming, N.D. Fairfield, 6-5, 3 OT; 5. Lukas Stone, Simsbury dec. Vincent Stevens, Farmington, 3-2
Outstanding wrestler: Anthony Falbo, Newtown (170)
By GERRY deSIMAS, JR.
Connecticut Wrestling Online
NEW HAVEN, Feb. 28 – It’s taken years but the Newtown High wrestling team is finally the best team in Connecticut. A year ago, the Nighthawks won their first state championship, outdueling Xavier and Danbury for the Class LL crown. But a week later, Danbury reigned as the State Open champion.
Newtown finally has the stage to themselves. A week after the Nighthawks beat Danbury by more than 51 points to win the Class LL championship, Newtown turned in a dominating performance Saturday to capture its first-ever State Open championship.
The Nighthawks scored 159 points – the second-highest performance in tournament history and two shy of Danbury’s record 161 set in 2005 – with two individual champions and seven wrestlers earning medals by finishing among the top six in their weight classes.
Sophomore Anthony Falbo, the tournament’s most outstanding wrestler, won his second straight State Open championship with a dominant performance at 170 pounds. Joe Accousti (152) won an Open title, James Leuci (138) took third while Luca Crudo (113), Ed Lovely (126) and Andy Hubina (195) each finished fourth. Connor LeMay, who was fourth a week ago in Class LL at 160 pounds, won five matches and finished sixth.
Danbury, led by two-time Open champion Juan Garcia at 190, was second with 112½ points followed by New Milford (110½), Simsbury (100), and Fairfield Warde (98).
“I was pretty pleased,” Newtown’s second-year head coach Chris Bray said. “There weren’t really a lot of surprises.” Bray shouldn’t be surprised. He has known most of these wrestlers for years. Nearly a decade ago, he was a coach with the Newtown Youth Wrestling Association.
A year ago, the Nighthawks wilted a bit under the harsh spotlight at the State Open. Not this year. “They all had expectations of winning,” Bray said. “We’ve had a fine year. It’s one of those seasons when everything came together just right.”
The Nighthawks went 12-2 and won nearly every tournament they entered – Ludlowe Invitational, Danbury’s Ryan Sabbagh Holiday Tournament, the Greater Hartford Invitational and the Eagle Classic. They won the Trumbull Duals, the SWC Tournament and Class LL tournament. The only tournament they didn’t win was the Ridgefield Challenge, losing to Monroe High in Woodbury, N.Y., the top ranked team in New York State.
“For Connecticut, (winning the State Open) is the ultimate goal,” Bray said. “It is hard and there are a lot of good wrestlers here. You can’t take anything for granted. You have to wrestle every single match.”
Danbury has won the State Open 12 times since 2001 when team scoring was restored at the tournament. “Newtown has been a good team all year,” Danbury coach Ricky Shook said. “We had three finalists. New Milford had five placewinners. Usually, that is enough to win here.”
Garcia and New Milford’s Kyle Linder won their second straight State Open titles. Khamri Thomas, the Windsor Locks wrestler, who wrestles for the Suffield/Windsor Locks/East Granby co-op team became just the 15th man in state history to win three State Open titles with a close win over Simsbury’s Jake Feldman.
Fairfield Warde’s Tim and Charles Kane became just the fourth set of brothers to win Open titles in the same year.
Complete brackets
