Host Killingly begins defense of ECC wrestling tourney title today
Killingly High School, fresh off an unbeaten regular season and ranked No. 7 in the latest state poll, begins defense of its Eastern Connecticut Conference wrestling tournament championship on Friday.
Killingly is also hosting the event again, starting at 4:30 p.m. on Friday and concluding with the championship bouts on Saturday at 3 p.m. The finals will be streamed lived via GameDay on www. theday.com
There are six defending champions in the field, including three from Killingly. Brady Zadora (126 pounds) won at 106 last year while Kaden Ware (132) was the 126 champion a year ago and Jack Richardson (160) was the 145 champion in 2022 and winner of the tournament’s Outstanding Wrestler award. Richardon went on to win the New England title.
Other returning champions are Norwich Free Academy’s Jaiden James (120), Windham’s Malachi Fowler (195) and Windham’s Yael Garcia-Rodriguez (220).
All six returning champions are seeded No. 1 in their weight classes.
In addition to crowning individual champions and the tournament team title, all three ECC divisional titles will also be determined with New London (Division I), Killingly (Division II) and Lyman Memorial/Windham Tech (Division III) beginning the weekend in first place.
Wrestling begins Friday with the Round of 16 at 4:30 p.m. followed by the championship round quarterfinals and consolation first round at 5:30 and the consolation second round at 7.
Wrestling resumes on Saturday with the championship semifinals and consolation quarterfinals at 10 a.m., the consolation semifinals at 11:45 a.m., the consolation finals (both 3rd vs. 4th and 5th vs. 6th) at 1:15 p.m. and the championship finals at 3 p.m.
Presentation of medals for each weight class will follow each subsequent match.
Tickets each day are $10 for adults and $5 for students and senior citizens and can be purchased in advance online. Use https://gofan.co/app/events/878823?schoolId=ECC for Friday tickets and https://gofan.co/app/events/878824?schoolId=ECC for Saturday.
— Day Staff Reports
• See complete list of seedings by weight class on