Xavier wrestling repeats at State Open champs
NEW HAVEN — The Xavier wrestling team has a saying on its wall: “Pressure is a privilege.”
That pressure tends to build when a team is winning as much as the Falcons have the past two seasons.Top-ranked Xavier hit a championship trifecta for the second consecutive season, following SCC and CIAC Class L titles with a State Open crown Saturday at the Floyd Little Athletic Center in New Haven.
The Falcons racked up 175.5 points while putting four wrestlers in the finals and winning two individual titles. They finished well ahead of runner-up New Fairfield, which scored 121.5, with Newtown third with 120. New Milford (96.5) and Danbury (90) rounded out the top five.
Xavier coach Mike Cunningham said his wrestlers were able to stay grounded despite carrying the bull’s eye of being the No. 1 team in the state.
“If we stay within ourselves, don’t worry about the outside rankings or any of that stuff and just do our jobs, we’ll do all right,” Cunningham said. “We committed to a really hard schedule, we traveled a lot and the team became tighter. We just focused on if we did what we’re supposed to do and let the schedule speak for itself, hopefully it gives us the opportunity to do this.”
Both of Xavier’s individual titles were won by sophomores.
Charles Weidman, a No. 3 seed, scored a 14-5 major decision over top-seeded Joshua Neiroda of Suffield/ Windsor Locks in the 182pound final, and Raekwon Shabazz, the top seed at 106 pounds, later won via technical fall 18-3 against RHAM’s Ben Fournier.
Only three teams had multiple champions, with New Fairfield and Killingly joining Xavier within two apiece.
New Fairfield sophomore Joe Mahoney repeated as a State Open champion when he won a 19-4 technical fall against NFA’s Jaiden James at 120 pounds, and senior Thomas Bock decisioned Fairfield Prep’s William Smith 4-0 at 145 pounds.
For Killingly, Jack Richardson defeated Newtown’s Luca Manfredit 6-1 in the 152-pound final. Kaden Ware remained unbeaten with a 4-0 shutout of Xavier’s Kyle Levesque at 132.
CHESS MOVES
During the 2020 pandemic quarantine, Avon’s Isaiah Adams picked up a new pastime: Playing chess.
In fact, the senior finds some similarities between the board and the mat.
“Wrestling is a lot like chess and that’s why I love it so much,” Adams said. “You have to be thinking a few moves ahead, predicting what your opponent’s going to do and still making your moves off of that while being live in real time.”
In real time, Adams is now a two-time State Open champion after defending his title and winning the 113-pound crown with a pin of South Windsor’s Kyden Merlin at 5:54.
Adams controlled the match from start to finish, building leads of 5-1 after two periods and 7-1 in the third before ending it with six seconds remaining.
It’s the latest in a string of titles for the Harvardbound Adams, who won Class M and CCC crowns the past two weeks. He was 4-0 with three pinfalls at the Open.
Winning the title as a senior was important to Adams.
“I’ve been working up to this moment for as long as I can remember,” Adams said. “At the beginning of the season, our coach asked us what our goals are and I said I wanted to be a two-time Open champ and from there, we just got to work. So this is a big moment for me.”