After school record at Class LL, East Hartford wants more
EAST HARTFORD — Last year, East Hartford’s Isaac Quiles won his second straight Class LL title, despite wrestling with a broken right hand.
“I thought it was just hurt,” Quiles said. “It was my good hand. I was mostly using my left hand. I was trying to get matches over quick. It was pretty tough.”
After the Class LL meet, Quiles, then a sophomore, got an X-ray and that was it. He was out of the State Open.
But Quiles, who won his third Class LL title last weekend at 126 pounds, will get a chance to wrestle in the Open once again this weekend. The State Open begins Friday at the Floyd Little Athletic Center and the finals will take place Saturday at 4 p.m.
Quiles was one of five East Hartford wrestlers who won Class LL titles last weekend, a school record, even though the Hornets were a little disappointed to finish third with 200 points behind Fairfield Warde (221) and Danbury (215).
The Hornets had the same five finalists last year but only three won.
“That’s our improvement from last year — all five won,” East Hartford coach Todd Albert said. “It was a small improvement, but it wasn’t enough (to win the team title). What are you going to do? I got to be excited to have five champs, it’s a school record.”
And all five are going to the Open — plus two more. Jaeckez
Mendez, who won a State Open title last year, is undefeated this season at 138. Yaxier Rivera was the Class LL 157-pound champion; he missed last year’s Open with a busted lip that needed stitches. Drayvn Roberts, a junior who plays quarterback on the football team, won at 175. Last year, he was the State Open runner-up at 160. And senior Sam Montovani, who finished second in Class LL, the State Open and New Englands to
the same wrestler last year, would like to win at 215.
Last Saturday, Montovani pinned Aethan Munden of Trumbull for the Class LL 215 title in 4:51.
“Last year I had a lot of silver medals, so it was nice to finally get a gold one,” Montovani said. “It's a little sad. It's my last two weeks of wrestling. I kind of want to end it on a good note.”
Roberts, who pinned Fairfield Prep's Tyler Smith in 2:53 for the LL title, said he got a little psyched out last year in the State Open final when he was top seeded but lost in a major decision in the final.
“I got into my mind, I started overthinking,” Roberts said. “All these people watching me. This time I'm just going to wrestle and have fun.”
Of the five winners, Mendez is the whole one who wrestles year-round. He's also the team hype guy. Asked what he expected from the weekend, he was effusive in his praise of his teammates.
“This weekend? We want five champions. Five State Open champions,” he said. “Isaac. I want to win myself, of course. Then I want to see Yaxier Rivera beat whoever is in front of him. I want to see him at the top. He's been the underdog for a while.
“Drayvn, I know he has it. It's all his. Sam, he definitely got it too. He needs to get out of his head. He got it. I love being the hype man. When they're down, I'm like, ‘Come on, we got this.' I want to see us all at the top.”