This past winter’s high school sports season saw plenty of success from FCIAC teams in postseason tournaments.
The two major highlights were the Greenwich girls’ basketball and New Canaan boys’ ice hockey teams winning state championships and then both being ranked No. 1 in the final GameTimeCT state polls for the first time ever.
The Staples boys’ basketball team also had a fantastic season. The Wreckers advanced to their Division I championship game with an undefeated record, but West Haven pulled out a 79-72 victory in a triple overtime thriller.
Staples finished with a 26-1 record, and West Haven and Staples were ranked first and second, respectively, in the final boys’ basketball state poll.
The Greenwich Cardinals, guided by coach Megan Wax, can pretty much proudly consider themselves Greenwich High School’s best girls’ basketball team ever considering they won the first state championship in school history and received their first accompanying No. 1 ranking ever in a final state poll.
The Cardinals were unanimously voted No. 1 in the Final GametimeCT Top 10 Girls Basketball Poll after their 51-46 victory Northwest Catholic in the championship game of the 2025-26 Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Division I Girls Basketball Tournament at Mohegan Sun Arena on March 21.
Superb sophomore Zuri Faison scored 18 points and senior Madi Utzinger had 16 to lead the Cardinals to the victory which prevented Northwest Catholic from winning a fourth consecutive state championship.
The Northwest Catholic Lions won the CIAC Class S championship in 2023 and they followed that up with Class MM and Class L titles the following two seasons.
This was the first year the divisional format was implemented for the five girls’ basketball state tournaments which were Division I, Division II, Division III, Division IV, and Division V.
Greenwich finished with a 25-2 record and a 15-game winning streak since its 55-35 loss at Trumbull on Jan. 28.
The Cardinals received all 13 first-place votes. Northwest Catholic (26-2) was ranked second, and Sacred Heart Academy (21-3) was No. 3. SHA defeated Greenwich, 56-40, in the season opener for both teams before the Cardinals then went on to win 25 of their remaining 26 games.
Division II state champion Bristol Central (22-5) was ranked No. 4 and Division II runner-up Rocky Hill (25-3) was No. 5.
Greenwich and Staples were the two FCIAC teams ranked among the top six as the 23-4 Staples Wreckers and Mercy (21-4) were tied for No. 6. The Staples Wreckers advanced to the Division II semifinals and were eliminated by eventual champion Bristol Central, 67-62.
Division III state champion Coventry (27-2) was ranked No. 8 and followed in the Top 10 by East Catholic (20-5) and Division III runner-up Seymour (25-3).
Another thing the Greenwich girls’ basketball and New Canaan boys’ ice hockey programs have in common is that they both went into their state tournaments after having just won FCIAC tournament championships.
Faison fired in 27 points to lead Greenwich to a 65-49 victory over Staples in the championship game 2025-26 FCIAC Girls Basketball Tournament.
After three scoreless periods in the 2025-26 FCIAC Boys Ice Hockey Tournament final, Willie Ericson scored the game-winning goal in overtime in New Canaan’s 1-0 victory over Darien.
The New Canaan boys’ hockey program won its previous state championship 54 years ago with a 2-1 victory over Hamden in the 1972 state championship game.
There had been nine more state final appearances since then for New Canaan in 1982, ’95, ’96, ’98, ’99, 2002, 2006, 2024, and last in last year’s Division I championship game won by Darien, 4-1.
This season’s Rams broke through and got that elusive state championship by winning the 2025-26 CIAC Division I Boys Ice Hockey Tournament with a 3-1 victory over Fairfield Prep on March 23 at Quinnipiac University’s M&T Bank Arena.
The game was still tied at 1-1 very late in the third period until New Canaan’s Drew Harmon scored on assists from Rogan Lowe and Anthony Delcarmine with 2:02 remaining. Lowe scored an empty-net goal 7.7 seconds left to secure the victory.
Coach Clark Jones’ 22-2-0 Rams, who were the unanimous choice for the No. 1 ranking in the Final GametimeCT Top 10 Boys Ice Hockey Poll, finished the season with a 15-game winning streak since their 2-1 loss to Fairfield Prep on Jan. 21.
Fairfield Prep (16-9-0) and Darien (18-6-0) were ranked second and third, respectively, as Prep’s 2-1 victory over Darien in the semifinals of the Division I state tournament led to those two teams flip-flopping their ranking positions from the previous state poll.
Notre Dame-West Haven (9-14-1) was ranked No. 4 and followed in the Top 10 by Simsbury (17-7-0), Division II state champion Lyman Hall (17-7-1), Cheshire (23-2-0), No. 8 Greenwich (10-13-0), East Haven Co-op (20-4-1), and Xavier (8-15-0).
In the Final GametimeCT Top 10 Boys Basketball Poll, West Haven received 14 of the 16 first-place votes and 476 polling points to earn the No. 1 ranking.
West Haven finished with a 23-4 record after that 79-72 triple overtime victory in the state championship game over eventual No. 2 Staples (26-1), which received 426 polling points and was the only FCIAC team in the Top 10.
Third-ranked Notre Dame-West Haven (22-4) received 414 polling points, Division II state champion and No. 4 Windsor (27-2) got 408 polling points, and those two teams each received one first-place vote.
In the Division I state tourney semifinals, West Haven nipped Notre Dame-West Haven, 43-42, and coach Dave Goldshore’s Staples Wreckers advanced with 67-61 victory over Notre Dame Prep, which finished 22-4 and with the No. 5 ranking in the final state poll.
Division II runner-up Bunnell (22-6) was ranked No. 6 and followed in the Top 10 by East Hartford (24-4), No. 8 East Catholic (20-5), Division III state champion SMSA (24-3) and Northwest Catholic (20-5).