NEW CANAAN – There has been so much dedication, so many hours of practice on high school wrestling mats, so many miles traveled to dual meets and quality invitational tournaments all over New England for the FCIAC wrestling teams, and now it is on.
All that commitment to making weight and all those meets toward improving with the major goal of peaking at the postseason championship tournaments. And now the postseason is here.
The 2024 Joe Sikorski FCIAC Wrestling Tournament takes place Friday and Saturday at its usual venue of New Canaan High School. The tourney begins Friday at 4:30 p.m. Saturday’s lengthy day of wrestling begins with the wrestlebacks at 10 a.m. The championship matches begin at 4:30 p.m.
Wrestling afficionados can surely count on some quality wrestling from many great wrestlers who are experienced and with many past achievements.
There are six of them who have experienced being on the top step of the podium at previous conference tournaments, including three of them who are already two-time FCIAC champions.
Defending FCIAC champion Fairfield Warde, perennial power Danbury, Trumbull, and Ridgefield have all been ranked in the top 10 in that last three weekly state polls. No other conference in the state has more than two teams in the top 10.
Danbury is ranked No. 3, Fairfield Warde is No. 5, while Trumbull and Ridgefield are ranked ninth and 10th, respectively.
Danbury junior 120-pounder Christian Pote, Ridgefield senior 120-pounder Dominic Barrella, and Fairfield Ludlowe senior 152-pounder Dylan Sherman are the three grapplers who have an opportunity to win themselves a third conference championship.
Pote has moved up to the 120-pound weight class this year after having defended his conference championship in the 106-pound class last year. Barrella, who won his first conference title at 113 two years ago, is the defending 120-pound champion. Sherman’s natural maturation and physical growth as taken him up to now having success in the 152-pound class after having won FCIAC championships at 126 pounds as a sophomore and at 132 last year.
Norwalk senior Phoenix Gardella won the 126-pound championship and was selected Most Outstanding Wrestler in the lower weights, and Fairfield Warde’s Owen Sheiman was the 113-pound champion at last year’s FCIAC tournament and Class LL state tournament. Sheiman placed second to Pote in the 106-pound class and Gardella was the 120-pound runner-up at the 2022 FCIAC tournament. Fairfield Ludlowe’s Donnell Young won by fall in last year’s 152-pound FCIAC final.
Several more wrestlers who placed high in last year’s postseason tournaments should be in the mix for making sustained runs in their respective weight classes this year.
Fairfield Warde junior 126-pounder Dominick Spadaro was edged by Gardella, 6-4, in last year’s great 126-pound FCIAC final and then he went and became the state Class LL and State Open champion. Spadaro is on track to have an amazing number of career wins as he already hit the 100-wins milestone in early January.
There are many more wrestlers having strong seasons who have combined to win a bunch of weekend matches and place first in several invitational tournaments.
Ridgefield senior Victor Petkov, who placed third in 138-pound class at last year’s FCIAC tourney, was named the Most Outstanding Wrestler at the Gary Tiger Ridgefield Challenge after pinning two of his 144-pound opponents while winning all four of his matches.
Five conference wrestlers who were champions at this year’s Fairfield Warde Invitational included Young, Sherman, and Jeffrey Hutzelmann (150) of Fairfield Ludlowe, Fairfield Warde’s 113-pound junior Zach Brzoska, and Norwalk junior 215-pounder Isaiah Dominguez (fourth place at 182 at 2023 FCIAC tournament).
Six more FCIAC wrestlers who placed first at invitational tournaments all over the state this year included Norwalk senior 144-pounder Nick Fatone (FCIAC and Class LL state champion at 132 in 2022, FCIAC 138-pound runner-up in ’23), New Canaan junior 144-pounder Teddy Goetz (third place at 160 at ’23 FCIAC tourney), Ridgefield junior 138-pounder Lorenzo Lanzilli (fourth at place at 145 at last year’s FCIAC tourney), Danbury junior 132-pounder Deydon Soto, Staples sophomore 150-pounder Damian Rousseau, and Wilton senior 165-pounder Lorenzo Caratozzolo.
Fairfield Warde won last year’s FCIAC championship with 216 points and Danbury was runner-up with 184. Fairfield Ludlowe placed third with 169.5 points, while Trumbull had 156 points to finish fourth and just two points ahead of Norwalk.
Trumbull’s Eagles utilized their quality balance and depth and won the state Class LL team title by 3.5 points even though they didn’t have an individual champion in any of the 14 weight classes. They scored 181 points and East Hartford was second with 177.5.
Defending State Open and Class L state champion Xavier was voted No. 1 for the 21st consecutive week in the current CT Wrestling Online Top 10 Poll which was released Feb. 6. The Falcons were the unanimous choice with all 17 first-place votes.
Newtown is ranked No. 2 and followed by Danbury, East Hartford, Fairfield Warde, New Milford, Simsbury, Killingly, Trumbull, and Ridgefield.