No. 1 New London girls win Class LL state tourney opener
New London — Rosi Nicholson had 18 points, six steals and three assists as New London began defense of its CIAC Class LL girls' basketball title by routing Bristol Eastern 62-22 in the first round on Monday night.
Taina Pagan had 14 points and five rebounds and Xaryia Melendez scored 10 for the top-seeded Whalers (24-0), which had 17 steals.
Cora Sawyer added five rebounds, six assists and three steals and Spencer Roman had five rebounds and three steals for New London, which hosts No. 17 Wilbur Cross in the second round on Thursday night. Wilbur Cross defeated No. 16 Staples 63-59.
Hannah Maghini scored seven points for the No. 32 Lancers (7-14). In other tournament games: • Vanessa Stolstajner had 16 points as No. 4 Cromwell downed No. 29 Ledyard 65-31 in the Class M first round. Cromwell, the Shoreline Conference champion, is 21-3. Sarah Serbascewicz had 13 points and seven assists for the Colonels, who finish 9-13, and Julia Lavin added 12 points and seven rebounds.
Wrestling
• State Open champions Noah Caskey of Montville, Dakota Grover of Fitch and Jarod Kosman of Fitch have received first-round byes in the upcoming New England Championship tournament, which will be held Friday and Saturday at the Providence Career and Technical Center.
Caskey (132 pounds) will face the winner of a first-round match between Isaac Hahr of St. Johnsbury (Vt.) and Zach Rioux of Bishop Guerton (N.H.) while Grover (220) will face either Devyn Peterson (Putnam, Mass.) or Alex Salas (Hope, R.I.), and Kosman will face either Colby Reilly (Cumberland, R.I.) or Travis Nugent (Masconomet (Mass.).
Six other local wrestlers will compete in the first round: New London's Naaji Powell-Keyton (106) vs. Calvin Dalton (Salem, Mass.), East Lyme's Everett Minevich (145) vs. Dylan Musgrove (Timberlane, N.H.), Fitch's Austin Robertson (145) vs. Hunter Quero (Spaulding, Vt.), New London's Jacob Commander (195) vs. Michael Wrigley (Wells, Maine), Montville's Nick Tibbetts (220) vs. Mattuez Kudra (North Attleborough, Mass.) and Ledyard's Richard Mullaney (285) vs. Duncan Wilgress-Pipe (Nashoba, Mass.).