Trent Evans, a first-year wrestler at Fitch High School, was watching the tape of his 195-pound semifinal from last Saturday's Eastern Connecticut Conference tournament at Windham High School.

Evans was trailing Waterford's Ben Pickowitz, the No. 2 seed, when suddenly he recorded a second-period pin.

"I was surprised when I watched the match, like, 'I really did that?'" Evans said. "You don't think, you just react. ... I don't know. I usually just find a way out of a sticky situation. I escaped and took him down and got the pin. I pinned him right at the right moment."

Evans, the No. 3 seed, went on to win the 195-pound title, beating top-seeded Conner Lemley of Killingly 11-8 in the final.

That made Fitch, with Evans and 106-pound champ Jarod Kosman, the only team to finish the day with multiple winners.

Evans, a 6-foot-3 junior middle linebacker for the Fitch football team, said he was interested in picking up another sport this year and wrestling happened to "click" for him.

He received the No. 3 seed, as well, for the Class L state tournament beginning Friday at Bristol Central High School.

"Coach (Mark) Kosman (Jarod's dad) is a really good coach. He's nice to all his wrestlers. He knows how to treat 'em. He works us at practice pretty tough," Evans said. "It was nice to see Jarod and coach Kos (after Jarod's win in the championship round) and it was also nice winning my first year ever. It was a good day.

"(After I won), I was in shock, honestly. I was thinking how I just won ECCs in my first year and about going to give my parents (Mark and Lisa) a hug."

We are family

• Austin Concascia of Montville and his cousin Noah Concascia of Waterford, both 145-pounders, made a deal before they wrestled each other in Saturday's ECC semifinal. Whichever cousin won would go on to take the whole tournament.

In this case, the privilege of representing his family belonged to Austin, who received a congratulatory hug from Noah afterward.

Austin, the No. 4 seed, pinned top-seeded Noah in the semifinals before going on to beat No. 2 Josh Rahal of Ledyard 8-1 in the final.

"The match I worried about the most was the semifinal," said Concascia, whose brothers Ian and Dane also placed for Montville in the meet. "Noah's whole family is here. My whole family is here. We're such a close family. Every Sunday we go to my grandma's house to eat pasta. My aunt cried the last time we wrestled.

"By the time the match came around, we stared each other down. It was just like any other opponent."

Concascia will be the No. 2 seed in his bracket at the Class S state tournament beginning Friday at Haddam-Killingworth, while Noah is the No. 5 seed in Class M.

Said Austin: "Hopefully now I'm not going to be doubting myself as much."

From the top

• There are 10 local wrestlers seeded first in their respective state tournaments beginning Friday. In Class M, Matt Dowler of St. Bernard/Norwich Tech is ranked first at 113, as is Alejandro Paulino of New London at 126, Sam Lindblom of Waterford at 138, Josh Rahal of Ledyard at 145 and Daric Johnson of Ledyard at 220. Ledyard won its 20th championship in program history a year ago, topping Waterford 193-168, and will attempt to add No. 21 Saturday at Law High School.

In Class S, Montville has two top seeds in Noah Caskey (106) and Tommy Wynosky (132), while Fitch's Kosman (106) is a top seed in the Class L meet at Bristol Central and Norwich Free Academy's Matt Foster (113) and Khaleed Exum-Strong (220) are ranked first in the Class LL meet at Trumbull.

v.fulkerson@theday.com

Twitter: @vickieattheday