Danbury wins 34th league title in 35 years

NEW CANAAN — The Danbury wrestling team entered the FCIAC tournament wrestlebacks Saturday morning trailing Warde by 25 points. After they were finished, the Hatters had closed the gap to 3.5 points.

Danbury won five weight classes in the finals, including the only head-to-head against Warde at 106 pounds, claiming its 34th FCIAC wrestling championship in 35 years and 11th tournament in a row by the narrowest of margins: 225.5 to 221.

The Mustangs, which won the FCIAC in 2010, have finished second place in the FCIAC tournament 10 of the last 14 times it was held. There was no tournament in 2021 due to COVID-19.

“This was a year we had to win it in the wrestlebacks,” Danbury coach Ricky Shook said. “We are green at the upper weights and we don’t have many guys who have wrestled in this tournament. Cristian Pote (106) bonused all weekend and he won it for us. He really did win it for us. This one was the hardest to win just with everything wrestling went through and our town went through. Our numbers are way down from COVID.”

Staples was third with 151; Trumbull fourth at 140 and Ridgefield fifth at 139.5 points.

In that 106-pound final, Pote was able to pin Owen Sheiman of Warde in 3:02, putting Danbury in the team lead for the first time Saturday.

“We had a good tournament but tournaments are won or lost in wrestlebacks and we had a tough wrestleback round,” Warde coach Jason Shaughnessy said.

TEAM SCORES

1. Danbury 225.5; 2. Warde 221; 3. Staples 151; 4 Trumbull 140; 5. Ridgefield 139.5; 6. Norwalk 118.5; 7. McMahon 106.5 8. Ludlowe 102; 9. Greenwich 95; 10. New Canaan 70.5

INDIVIDUAL MATCHES

99: Jack Francis, Staples MD Bisher Hiba, Trumbull, 11-2

106: Cristian Pote Danbury PIN Owen Sheiman Warde, 3:02

113: Dominic Barrella, Ridgefield DEC. Dominick Spadaro, Warde, 8-4

120: John Schneider, McMahon MD Phoenix Gardella Norwalk, 19-9

126: Dylan Sherman, Ludlowe DEC Nathan Blaha Ridgefield, 4-3 132: Nick Fatone, Norwalk PIN Jesse Defonce, Danbury, 5:16

138: Kai O’Dell, Danbury PIN RJ Decamillo New Canaan, 3:45

145: Logan Kovacs, Danbury DEC Zavier Hernandez, McMahon, 6-2

152: Lucas Coleman, Warde DEC Lucas Ferreira Ridgefield, 8-6

160: Andrey Kosygin, Ridgefield DEC Noah Fraas, Staples, 7-2

170: Will Ebert, Warde PIN Ben Vansteen, McMahon, 1:17

182: Louis Ceci, Greenwich PIN Ryan Gilchrist, Norwalk, 5:57

195: Aethan Munden, Trumbull PIN Mark Wrobel, Ludlowe, 1:17

220: Lukas Cylwik, Trumbull DEC Nehemias Pettway, Warde, 5-2

285: Joseph Sansone, St Joseph PIN Nuh Ajdinoski, Danbury, 3:05