Windham repeats as ECC wrestling tournament champion
Killingly — Windham had already placed eight wrestlers in the finals Saturday afternoon at the Eastern Connecticut Conference championship meet, more than any other program.
Yet there was the team's coach, Pat Risley, craning his neck to try to watch four mats at once during the wrestle-backs. Ledyard High School was hot on Windham's heels, as usual.
"Ledyard is still winning matches left and right," Risley said at the time, honestly worried.
Windham, unbeaten during the regular season and ranked third in the state, defended its title, winning three individual championships and finishing with 225.5 points to Ledyard's 211.5 points. Montville, with five finalists, including 132-pound champion and Outstanding Wrestler Joel Morth, was third with 186 points.
Ledyard had three finalists and two champions in Danny Contino (195 pounds) and Daric Johnson (220). But the Colonels wrestled measurably better than they did in a dual meet against Windham, a meet which was over long before it was over.
Ledyard had 12 place-winners, including a pair Ledyard coach Steve Bilheimer was proud of in particular.
Sam Cummings was sixth at 145. He began the season at 126 pounds and after the first meet of the year, he developed mono, Bilheimer said. Cummings initially tried to get back to his original weight after missing six weeks, but Bilheimer moved him to 145 to make it easier. Jacob Millbach, meanwhile, was the No. 9 seed at 152 and finished third.
Windham led Ledyard just 208.5-196.5 headed into the finals.
"I'm proud to say we always put out a pretty good product," said Bilheimer, whose team has won four straight championships and will gun for its fifth in a row at the Class M meet next week at Guilford. "We corrected a lot of mistakes throughout the year. The biggest complaint of the team was that we had a hard time pinning people, putting guys away when we had them. We did a great job of that today."
Ledyard's Contino, the No. 1 seed, defeated No. 2 Connor Lemley of Killingly 11-1. Also the top seed, Johnson edged Windham's Seiji Arzuagua 3-2 in an ultimate tiebreaker. Johnson earned the right to choose his spot in the final overtime against his familiar opponent — the two also wrestled in last year's State Open semifinals, one of many matchups between the two powers — picked down and managed a decisive escape.
Morth, meanwhile, started off the championship bouts with a flourish for Montville, pinning defending Class M state champion Alejandro Paulino of New London in 3:27. Paulino led 2-0 initially but Morth made it 6-3 in his favor by the end of the first period.
It was 6-4 when Morth — a junior who missed last year's tournament as a precaution due to a previous injury — pinned Paulino, leaping to his feet to a giant cheer from the Montville fans. Coach Gary Wilcox was hoping Morth was rewarded with Outstanding Wrestler.
"It was in transition and the kid came in and (Morth) just kind of caught him and put him to his back," Wilcox said. "It's a Joel thing. He hits people in the middle of things. Joel has had the level I want him to have right now. ... That's a celebration. When you wrestle that well, you have to be happy."
"I was anticipating a good match," said Morth, who is undefeated this season. "I took a shot."
Other local champions were Fitch's Jarod Kosman (106, pin in 5:57) and Billy Goff (160, 14-2 decision), St. Bernard/Norwich Tech's Matt Dowler (138, pin in 1:17), Waterford's Sam Lindblom (152, pin in 3:30), Norwich Free Academy's Matt Foster (120, 11-4 decision) and Montville's Zach Looney (126, 9-4 decision).
Windham's champions were Julio Flores at 113, Cullan Contos at 145 and Alex Perez at 170. The Whippets had a pair of underdogs among their eight finalists in No. 6 Alejandro Garcia at 120 and No. 3 Sebastian Stultz at 126, both sophomores.
"We told them (the semifinals) was a crucial round. You got to step up and wrestle in that round," Risley said. "You want to win in the postseason. You want to try to peak. You don't want to have a letdown now."
v.fulkerson@theday.com
Twitter: @vickieattheday
ECC WRESTLING TOURNAMENT
Team results
1. Windham, 225.5; 2. Ledyard, 211.5; 3. Montville, 186; 4. Killingly, 170; 5. Lyman Memorial/Windham Tech, 121.5; 6. Fitch, 114.5; 6. (tie) New London and Waterford, 110; 9. NFA, 89; 10. St. Bernard/Norwich Tech, 73; 11. Griswold, 64; 12. Woodstock Academy, 37; 13. East Lyme, 27.5; 14. Bacon Academy, 23.
Individual results
106 pounds — Final: Jarod Kosman (Fitch) pinned Angel Flores (Windham), 5:58; Third: Logan Smith (Waterford) dec. Bo Nguyen (Ledyard), 8-0; Fifth: Dan Charron (Killingly) pinned Jacob Foster (NFA), 3:19.
113 — Final: Julio Flores (Windham) dec. Noah Caskey (Montville), 4-2; Third: Everett Minevich, (East Lyme) dec. Austin Robertson (Ledyard), 5-4; Fifth: Mike Charron (Killingly) pinned Abe Cooke (Woodstock), 3:58.
120 — Final: Matt Foster (NFA) dec. Angel Garcia (Windham), 11-4; Third: Alex Starr (LM/WT) dec. James Lantigua (Killingly), 4-1l; Fifth: Hunter Driscoll (Montville) pinned Jason Jacaruso (Griswold), 2:58.
126 — Final: Zach Looney (Montville) dec. Sebastian Stultz (Windham), 9-4; Third: Roger Moyer (LM/WT) dec. Zack Burgess (Killingly), 4-2; Fifth: Tim Li (NFA) dec. Joe'l Garcia (Griswold), 12-4.
132 — Final: Joel Morth (Montville) pinned Alejandro Paulino (New London), 3:27; Third: Christian Fogg (Ledyard) dec. Daniel Benetiz (Fitch), 5-3; Fifth: Eric Angeles (Windham) pinned Caleb Marsh (SB/NT), :03.
138 — Final: Matt Dowler (SB/NT) pinned Sam Kury (Montville), 1:13; Third: Luis Torres (Windham) dec. Carl Edge (Griswold), 3-1; Fifth: David Gill (East Lyme) dec. Shane Fors (Ledyard), 3-1.
145 — Final: Cullan Contos (Windham) dec. Austin Concascia (Montville), 2-0; Third: Noah Concascia (Waterford) dec. Cole Davidson (LM/WT), 7-6; Fifth: Jacques Elissaint (New London) pinned Sam Cummings, (Ledyard), 4:33.
152 — Final: Sam Lindblom (Waterford) pinned Sam Ruiz (Windham), 3:30; Third: Jake Millbach (Ledyard) dec. Zach Caffrey (Killingly), 8-5; Fifth: Jacob Commander (New London) dec. Wisdom Bedjrah (Fitch), 7-6.
160 — Final: Billy Goff (Fitch) dec. Collin Crader (Ledyard), 14-2; Third: Mason LaFlam (LM/WT) dec. Doug Delacruz (Montville), 8-3; Fifth: John Currie (Woodstock) dec. Josiah Callender (Waterford) 3-1.
170 — Final: Alex Perez (Windham) dec. Dillon Knupp (Killingly), 6-3; Third: Ryan Gervais (Griswold) pinned Curtis Patsiga (Ledyard), 3:14; Fifth: Dane Concascia (Montville) pinned Matthew Schneider (Bacon), 2:04.
182 — Final: Austin Caffrey (Killingly) pinned Mitchell LaFlam (LM/WT), 8-7 (OT tiebreaker); Third: George Hidalgo (New London) dec. Dakota Grover (Ledyard), 6-2; Fifth: Justin Keating (Waterford) dec. Emanuel Diaz (Montville), 7-2.
195 — Final: Dan Contino (Ledyard) dec. Conner Lemley (Killingly), 11-1; Third: David Verizzi (LM/WT) pinned Trent Evans (Fitch), 1:46; Fifth: Ben Pickowitz (Waterford) dec. Jose Lotts (NFA), 5-2.
220 — Final: Daric Johnson (Ledyard) dec. Seiji Arzuaga (Windham), 3-2 (OT); Third: Renelson Michel (New London) dec. Nick Tibetts (Montville), 6-4; Fifth: Cahan Quinn (Woodstock) pinned Robert Newton (SB/NT), 1:58.
285 — Final: Josh Angel (Killingly) pinned Richard Crooks (NFA), 3:38; Third: Shawn Hundley (Ledyard) dec. Nathaniel Oaks (Windham), 5-3; Fifth: Kevin Berardi (Fitch) pinned Augustine Cornish (New London), 1:58.
Outstanding wrestler — Joel Morth (Montville)
Comment threads are monitored for 48 hours after publication and then closed.