Norwich — Mike Gorton wasn’t sure what to expect from his New London wrestling team this winter.

On one hand, the Whalers graduated some talent and have just two seniors in the program.

On the other hand, Gorton knew that his wrestlers had worked their collective tails off during the offseason.

Gorton’s Whalers made him quite proud on Monday night. They stormed out to a big lead over Norwich Free Academy and withstood a late run for a 43-36 win to finish the regular season unbeaten in the Eastern Connecticut Conference Division I and put themselves in position to clinch it at next week’s ECC Tournament.

“It was a big question mark,” Gorton said about his team headed into the season. “I had a feeling that we had some kids that could step up and surprise people; that some kids worked hard in the offseason doing jiu-jitsu. I got a bunch of them that did it (at Whaling City Athletics).

“It was one of those things where in the back of mind I could see them doing pretty well this year, but I probably stopped myself (from thinking about it) because (there are) some things that you don’t know.”

Count junior Jeriel Suriel among the Whalers who have evolved greatly this season. He won by pin at 195 pounds to start a run of five straight wins that gave New London (6-2, 3-0) a 34-6 lead after seven matches.

“He’s a very unassuming kid,” Gorton said. “Last year, people probably wouldn’t think he would ever come close to the varsity lineup. He’s been in the gym lifting. ... He still has a lot of growing pains but then you saw him step up at 195 tonight. I knew he could do that. I knew he could (do that) if he wrestled his style because I wrestle him all the time.

“He doesn’t look like it but he’s got a little something-something to him.”

New London dominated at the heavier weights with Christian Ortiz (152), Trevin Robledo-Thompson (170), Kaiden Smith (220) and Henry Santana-Liriano (285) all winning by pin.

Jose Negron Ortiz won by pin at 106, Ruben Rivera (113) won by major decision and Andy Martinez-Soliz (126) won a decision for the Whalers. They would clinch the D-I title outright depending on their performance at the ECC Tournament.

The ECC’s division titles are determined by combining the results of the divisional dual meets and the ECC tournament. A team receives a win for each divisional foe it finishes ahead of at the tournament.

The Wildcats (17-6, 1-2) rallied at the lower and middle weights. They closed their deficit to 37-30 after Niam Wallace won by pin at 145 with two matches remaining.

Ortiz clinched the win for New London with a pin in 1 minute, 21 seconds at 152 pounds.

“New London wrestled well; they wrestled hard,” NFA head coach Steve Nelson said. “It just wasn’t our night. ... We’re missing a couple of guys. We had some sicknesses and some other things but (New London) is very tough.

“(We) still made it interesting. (We) tried our best to close that gap and make a run at it but just came up short.”

Jackson Sorel (132), Dugan Marsh (138), Tommy Brunelli (160) and Zaire Wallace (182) all won by pin for NFA while Jaiden James (120) won by forfeit.

n.griffen@theday.com