State Champions! OSW Wrestling Takes Home First-Ever Title

Having the chance to win a state title started as merely a dream only four years ago as the Old Saybrook/Westbrook wrestling team formed after having several of its wrestlers compete with the Morgan squad for many seasons. Over time, the unit has grown dramatically, and after finishing as Class S runner-up last winter, that dream turned into a reality on Feb. 18 as the Rams won their first-ever state championship after racking up 180.5 points for the title.

"We're so fortunate to have this group of guys who work so hard and are so committed to the program that we're trying to build," said Coach Eric Manuel. "I think we're the first co-op team to win a state championship and the fastest to a title for a program going from zero to hero. That's a testament to these guys that work hard every day-I have not been able to find a limit that these guys won't go to. They just work so hard for each other and they want to be successful for each other. It's an individual sport, but you wrestle as a team and that's what's so special about these group of guys-they are a team in the purest sense of the word."

The athletes who've been there since the beginning of the journey are senior captains Eric Manuel, Dalton Ahern, Will Honer, and Anthony Onorato, as well as fellow seniors Elton Purvis, Alfred Giangrande, and Stefen Vondassel, all of which saw the program develop the past few seasons, vowed to bring home a championship for the young program, and succeeded.

"You couldn't write a story better than this," said co-captain Manuel. "Just seeing every year how our team has grown and how we've gotten better and seen how the program has unfolded has been amazing. The expectations couldn't have been higher-we knew this was our year and we had really great semifinal and quarterfinal rounds and it really leapfrogged us. We just held [2011 state champion] Griswold off in the finals and won it."

Manuel was one of five who captured an individual title, doing so in the 126-pound weight class by defeating Dustin Falco of Griswold 7-3.

"Winning the individual title was a huge weight off my shoulders-I've been wanting the state title since my freshman year," he said. "Now that it's happened, it's awesome. I beat the kid I wrestled in the final already so I was confident going in."

Also earning individual crowns were Elton Purvis at 170 after defeating Chris Young of Rocky Hill 3-1, sophomore David Colvin at 132 ,who defeated Josh Fontanez of Portland 4-3; and Ahern at 152 after he defeated John D'Agostino from Nonnewaug 16-4.

"There really is no other feeling like this; you can't put it into words-at the end of it your head is raised," said Ahern. "You put so much effort into this one thing and to finally win a state title as a senior of this team, it takes a lot of pressure off and all the effort our coach put in-it's amazing to see him smile at the end of it all and say he's proud to be our coach. After last year, even though I won the individual title, the bus ride home was depressing. I wasn't happy; I wasn't satisfied-I wanted my team to win."

Also putting in solid performances were Onorato at 145, who earned runner-up status after being defeated by Steve Persson of Oxford 3-1 in the championship match; Josh Schneider at 113, who earned third place after defeating Joshua Russell of Derby with a pin in 1:32; and Vondassel at 160, who came in sixth place after being defeated by Matt Nicolari of Derby 7-3.

"Our goal as a team from day one from the very first practice was to grow into a state championship team," said Coach Manuel. "Our first year we didn't think it would happen right away, but our second year we were fifth and weren't that far back. We had 14 kids our first year, seven of those were the seniors on the team today-we knew if we could keep them for that long, they could win. They grew, they committed to each other, to the sport, to the program and took pride in it. The hardest thing you can do, especially from a coach's standpoint, is to get them to believe in something bigger than themselves-and they believed they could win a state title last year, and to have it taken away by eight points was tough, so this year they had that extra motivation."

Said Ahern: "I really dedicate everything to Coach Manuel-he's a ridiculous coach, he's phenomenal and knows his stuff. He's taken kids who didn't know how to wrestle freshman year and turned them into state title winners."