Windham begins defense of ECC wrestling title today

Windham High School begins defense of its Eastern Connecticut Conference wrestling championship when the two-day tournament begins today at Killingly High School.

The Whippets, ranked third in the latest state coaches’ poll after completing an unbeaten regular season, are the favorites in a talented field that includes two reigning state champions (Ledyard in Class M and Windham in Class S), as well as seven returning ECC champions.

Fitch has a pair of returning champs — Jarod Kosman (106 pounds) and Trent Evans (195). The others are St. Bernard/Norwich Tech’s Matt Dowler (113 last year and the No. 1 seed at 138 this year), Waterford’s Sam Lindblom (138 last year, No. 1 at 152 this year), Montville’s Austin Concascia (145), Killingly’s Austin Caffrey (170 last year, No. 1 at 182 this year) and Ledyard’s Dan Contino (182 last year, No. 1 at 195 this year).

Evans is seeded third at 195 behind Contino and Killingly’s Conner Lemley.

The other No. 1 seeds are: Montville’s Noah Caskey (113), Norwich Free Academy’s Matt Foster (120), Montville’s Zach Looney (126), New London’s Alejandro Paulino (132), Fitch’s Billy Goff (160), Windham’s Alex Perez (170), Ledyard’s Daric Johnson (220) and Killingly’s Josh Angel (285).

Wrestling begins today with the first round at 5 p.m., followed by the the championship quarterfinals at 6 and two rounds on consolation matches. On Saturday, the championship semifinals will start at 11 a.m., followed by two more rounds of consolations matches. The consolation finals will begin at 2:45 p.m. and the championship matches will start at 4:30 p.m., followed by the presentation of individual medals and team awards.

See Page D5 for a list of the top seeds in each weight class.