Amity finishes eighth; New Canaan takes title

BRISTOL — After falling by just a single point at the Class L championships to foe Bristol Eastern last year, hopes were high in the New Milford camp that it would be able to wrestle back the championship that had been theirs the previous four seasons.

But those hopes were dashed in the early rounds of the two-day tournament as the Lancers built an insurmountable lead en route to the title. The Green Wave would place third (173) behind Bristol Eastern (231) and runnerup Xavier (196.5).

New Canaan (163.5) used its top stars to notch a fourth-place finish, followed by Daniel Hand (129.5). Amity took home eighth while Wilton’s Travis Longo’s win in the 106pound class helped the Warriors to a ninth-place finish.

Mel Ortiz won the 126pound title for the Green Wave, who captured the SWC title last week. Ortiz won a 4-2 overtime decision over New Canaan freshman Justin Mastrianni after the match was deadlocked at 2-2 for several periods.

“I just believed if I worked hard enough I was going to get the win,” Ortiz said. “I still have things to work on, but it was more of a pride thing. Justin is a really talented wrestler; we both seem to know what we’re doing.”

The Green Wave sent two other finalists to the meet as Tyler Schultz (138) and Brandon Leonard (120) collected silver medals. Four other New Milford grapplers — Colin Lindner, Julian Reza, Kyle Fabich and Luke Schell — all finished fourth.

“It’s not over yet, there’s still a lot more to come with next week (State Open) and New Englands,” Ortiz said.

New Canaan’s top performers all made deep runs in their respective weight classes. Tyler Sung was the winner at 138 pounds while Jack Stewart (285) and Nate Sibbett (145) each made runs to the finals in addition to Mastrianni. Six Rams placed in the top four.

“We wrestled as well as we could have wrestled,” New Canaan coach Paul Gallo said. “I thought every match we wrestled hard; we might not have won but we put in the effort. Coming in fourth I was really happy. Justin’s match with Mel was a fantastic match, and Sung just wins. He’s not flashy but he just comes out on top all the time.”

Sung got the early advantage against Schultz before controlling the rest of the contest, winning a 5-0 decision to claim his first state championship.

“I made sure I got that first takedown,” Sung said. “Just the crucial things that made all the difference in the match. it feels good coming back to win (the state title); it was one of my big goals coming into the season.”

Xavier had seven wrestlers in the top four to secure its runner-up finish. Ryan Devivo — one of the top wrestlers in the state who won last year’s State Open at 160 pounds — pinned Hand’s Adam Hendrick. Devivo took second at New Englands in 2017.

“I feel like I wrestled a lot better than I expected I would,” said Devivo, who scored two pin falls before winning a 16-0 decision in the semifinals. “I’ve been wrestling pretty iffy this season, so this was a good tournament; the pressure is on because I wanted to defend my title and keep going.”

The Falcons had other top finishers as Dylan Sousa was a runnerup at 182, James Lunt took third at 132 and Vito Santarsiero was third at 113.

“I feel like we wrestled incredible because we beat most of the teams we lost to during the regular season,” Devivo said. “It was definitely a good tournament for us.”

The Tigers had a winner Saturday as Michael Burchell closed the event with a pin over Stewart at 285.

Bristol Eastern won four weight classes to help claim the title; Fitch was the only other school with more than one. The State Open is scheduled for next weekend at the Floyd Little Athletic Center in New Haven.