First Girls’ Invitational wrestling tournament has three local champs

New Haven — Three local wrestlers won state championships during the inaugural Girls' Invitational tournament on Saturday, which was run in conjunction with the annual State Open boys' tournament at the Floyd Little Athletic Center.

Norwich Free Academy's Savannah Vanase (113 pounds) and Destiny Mateo (120) stood at the top of the podium along with Ledyard's Linda Holeman (126). Vanase and Holeman were also place-winners wrestling against the boys during the Eastern Connecticut Conference tournament two weeks ago.

Vanase earned a 6-0 decision over Wethersfield's Alden Johnson, Mateo scored a 3-1 sudden victory over Berlin's Christianna Morley and Holeman pinned Northwestern Regional's Lily Schwartz in 4 minutes, 43 seconds.

Montville's Aida Flores (145) and Baylee Gagneir also reached the finals before settling for silver medals.

In the State Open boys' tournament, two ECC wrestlers reached the finals, but came up short. New London junior

Jadian Mackenzie was beaten by technical fall (17-2 in 4:38) by Barlow's Carson LiCastri in the 195 final while Lyman Memorial/Windham Tech senior Ryan Powers lost to Westhill's Thomas Mazur 14-4 in a battle of unbeatens.

Danbury won the team title with 193 points, easily outdistancing Fairfield Warde (146) while ECC and Class S champion Killingly finished ninth with 55 points.

Ledyard had a pair of place-winners in Brayden Grim, who was third at 160, and Connor Doran, who placed fifth at 113. In addition, East Lyme/Norwich Tech's Roark Ryan finished fourth at 220.

The ECC had four other place-winners, including three from Killingly: David Charron (third, 126), Ben Richardson (fourth, 145) and Kaden Ware (fifth, 106). Bacon Academy's Braeden O'Brien added a sixth at 132.

Three other local wrestlers also placed in the girls' tournament: Montville's Karla Flores (fourth, 113), Waterford's Virginia Juarbe (fourth, 126) and Ledyard's Annika Santos (sixth, 120).