Caskey, Grover, Kosman advance to New England wrestling tourney quarterfinals
Providence — Three local wrestlers, State Open champions Jarod Kosman and Dakota Grover of Fitch and Montville's Noah Caskey, advanced to the quarterfinals of the New England Championship tournament on Friday night at the Providence Career and Technical Center.
Kosman (113 pounds) defeated Travis Nugent of Masconomet (Mass.) 9-2 while Grover (220) need a third period escape to edge Davyn Peterson of Putnam (Mass.) and Caskey pinned Zach Rioux of Bishop Guertin (N.H.) in 4 minutes, 23 seconds.
All three are seniors and received byes into the second round.
Kosman will face Alden Shields of Kennebunk (Maine) in today's quarters, which begin at 9 a.m., while Grover will meet Robert Fahey of Pinkerton (N.H.) and Caskey will wrestle Ramazan Attasaouv of Wayland (Mass.)
Today's championship semifinals are scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. with the finals scheduled for a 5:165 p.m. start.
Four other local wrestlers won opening round matches before losing in the second round. New London's Naaji Powell-Keyton (106) defeated Calvin Dalton of Salem (Mass.) 5-0 before losing by pin in 1:00 to Jake Craig of Skowhegan (Maine); Fitch's Austin Robertson (145) pinned Hunter Quero of Spaulding (Vt.) in 2:49 before losing to Brevin Cassella of Nashoba (Mass.) 7-1; New London's Jacob Commander (195) decisioned Michael Wrigley of Wells (Maine) 112 before losing 3-1 in overtime to Sam Wilkins of Mt. Anthony (Vt.); and Montville's Nick Tibbetts decisioned O.J. Pekecar of Dedham (Mass.) 5-3 before losing to Omar Eldaly of Shawsheen Tech (Mass.) 5-2.
East Lyme's Everett Minevich (145) lost to Dylan Musgrove of Timberlane (N.H.) 7-4, and Ledyard's Richard Mullaney (285) lost to Duncan Willgress-Pipe of Nashoba (Mass.) 5-3.
Four wrestlers came back to advance to the consolation round of eight today. Powell-Keyton earned a bye while Robertson pinned Jonathan Grenier of Noble (Me.) in 1:49, Commander decisioned Eli Wilson of Nauset Regional (Mass.) and Tibbetts decisioned James Boyd of Nokomis (Maine) 9-2. Minevich was eliminated with a 5-1 loss to Michael Reynolds of Scituate (R.I.) and Mullaney was eliminated by George Harrington of Staples 5-3.
College baseball
• Bryton Ferris went the distance as Mitchell College won its first game of the season with a 3-2 victory over Otterbein College at the Snowbird Classic in Port Charlotte, N.C. Ferris scattered nine hits over nine innings while walking just one batter and striking out five.
Run-producing singles by Peter Abate and Eric Marriott gave the Mariners (1-1) a 2-0 lead in the second and after Otterbein tied the game with two runs in the third, Jack Finnegan drove in the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly in the fifth.
• Tim Cate struck out 10 over seven strong inning and No. 24 UConn held off North Florida 5-4 to win the opener of a three-game weekend series in Jacksonville.
Wheeler's Troy Stefanski had an RBI single and John Toppa drove in two more with a base hit as part of a four-run second inning for the Huskies (5-2). P.J. Poulin recorded four outs for his third save of the season.
Postponements
• Three postseason events scheduled for Friday were postponed until Saturday, including the Eastern Connecticut Conference diving championships, which will take place at 7 p.m. at East Lyme. The swimming portion of the event will be held as scheduled Saturday at 2:30 p.m. at UConn Avery Point in Groton.
The other two events were CIAC girls' basketball state tournament games. The Class L second round game between No. 15 East Lyme and No. 2 Holy Cross will be played on Saturday at 6 p.m. in Waterbury while the Class S second round game between No. 11 Old Lyme and No. 6 Sacred Heart will be played at 6:30 p.m. in Waterbury.
In addition, Saturday's CIAC cheerleading championships have been postponed due to a leak in the roof at New Haven's Floyd Little Athletic Center. If possible, and if the roof has been repaired and inspected, a revised schedule will be held on Sunday.
H.S. boys’ basketball
• St. Thomas More advanced to Saturday's Prep Six championship game with a 69-51 win over MacDuffie on Thursday.
Ta-Jae Jenkins scored 17 points, Cole Turner and Tre Williams had 11 points each and Tyshun Bryant had 10 points and seven assists for the Chancellors.