Fairfield Warde won the FCIAC Wrestling Championships for the fourth straight year, Ridgefield won the first state championship in school history, and eight wrestlers won conference and state titles to highlight a very good 2025-26 wrestling season for the FCIAC.
Cole Desiano, John Carrozza and Dylan Meyers of Ridgefield, and Fairfield Warde’s Jude Grammatico and Dylan O’Brien were individual champions multiple times in the postseason as they helped lead their squads to their respective team titles.
Seamus Brannigan and Julian Rousseau of Staples and Danbury’s Harrison Muller also won multiple individual titles in winning their FCIAC and Class LL state championships.
Fairfield Warde withstood a legitimate challenge by Ridgefield in the FCIAC championship meet on Feb. 14 at New Canaan High School. Warde scored 203.5 team points to finish 7.5 points ahead of runner-up Ridgefield.
Coach Jason Shaughnessy’s Fairfield Warde Mustangs won it with their typical combination of solid wrestling skills, depth, and balance.
And they certainly needed to combine all those ingredients to finish ahead of a Ridgefield team which had five wrestlers who were FCIAC champions out of the 15 weight classes.
Ridgefield’s 120-pounder Carter Lanzilli and 150-pounder Leo Moore were the other two Tigers who were conference champions along with Desiano (113 pounds), Carrozza (144) and Meyers (132).
Ridgefield scored 196 points to finish 15.5 points ahead of third-place Danbury (180.5), which had four FCIAC champions in 99-pounder Kai Farstad, William Vazquez (106), Em’rick Henry (157) and Muller (175).
Trumbull placed fourth with 152 points, New Canaan made it into the top five with 130.5 points, while the other five teams in the top 10 were Wilton (116.5), Staples (114.5), eighth-place Greenwich (94.5), Fairfield Ludlowe (77.5), and Stamford (58).
Fairfield Warde withstood Ridgefield’s core of five conference champions because the Mustangs had a pair of FCIAC champions themselves in O’Brian (190 pounds) and 138-pounder Paul Soracco along with that deep lineup in which five more Mustangs finished in the top three in their weight classes.
Fairfield Warde 285-pounder Jose Abreau and Grammatico (132) were both runner-up and the threesome of Cody Palmentiero (113), Griffin Caird (144) and Christian Lopez (175) all finished in third place.
In addition to the five Ridgefield Tigers, four Danbury Hatters and two Fairfield Warde Mustangs who won FCIAC championships, the four other conference champions were Brannigan (126) and Julian Rousseau (215) of Staples, Trumbull’s Hubert Szymko (165) and Greenwich’s Colin Falla (285).
One week later coach Joe Regan’s Ridgefield’s Tigers broke through to achieve school history on Feb. 21 at Trumbull High School when they won the 2026 Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Class LL Wrestling Championships.
Desiano, Carrozza and Meyers followed up on their FCIAC titles by winning Class LL state championships.
Lanzilli, Moore and Wyatt Podielsky (190) advanced to their championship matches and placed second while Simon Rodriguez (126) placed third to contribute to Ridgefield scoring 209 points and finishing 33 points ahead of Danbury.
There were three FCIAC teams who placed among the top four and six conference teams among the top 11 at that Class LL state championship meet.
Danbury was runner-up with 176 points, Trumbull was fourth with 168.5, Staples (141) placed eighth, Greenwich (116) finished ninth, and Stamford (100.5) was 11th.
The FCIAC had nine Class LL individual champions out of the 14 weight classes.
In addition to that Ridgefield trio of Desiano, Carrozza and Meyers, the other Class LL state champions from the FCIAC were Gavin Donaldson (120), Brannigan and Julian Rousseau of Staples, Muller of Danbury, Greenwich’s Mark Zolotarevsky (138), and Stamford’s Midgerson Gelin (150).
Donaldson, Zolotarevsky and Gelin all won their titles after runner-up finishes at the FCIAC Championships.
On that same day Fairfield Warde was runner-up behind Xavier in the CIAC Class L Wrestling Championships at Wilton High School, one week before Xavier and Ridgefield placed 1-2 at the State Open.
Xavier won the Class L state championship meet with 256 points.
Grammatico and O’Brian were Class L state champions who led the way for Fairfield Warde’s runner-up Mustangs. They tallied 183 points to finish 27.5 points ahead of third-place Newtown.
Wilton’s host Warriors had the second highest score among conference teams as they placed seventh with 123 points and had an individual Class L state champion in Augie Furman, who was previously the FCIAC runner-up at 215 pounds.
The following week Xavier scored 218.5 points to win the State Open for the fifth straight year.
Ridgefield finished second with 146 points and was followed by fellow conference members Staples (76) and Fairfield Warde (72).
Ledyard (66.5) finished fifth. Also, from the FCIAC, Danbury’s 56.5 points placed the Hatters eighth, and Trumbull (53) was 12th.
Desiano and Carrozza of Ridgefield were the two conference wrestlers who won their weight classes in three postseason championship meets.
Desiano won his weight class at the FCIAC, state Class LL and State Open tournaments for the second consecutive season. Last year Desiano was a sophomore 106-pounder and this year he moved up to 113 and secured his Triple Crown when he pinned Peter Annis of Suffield/Windsor Locks at 3:46 in the State Open championship match.
Carrozza achieved his unique Triple Crown season when he was the FCIAC and state Class LL champion and then he became a New England champion after he placed second at the State Open.
Carrozza won a 6-5 decision over James Lally of Saint John’s Prep (Mass.) in the 144-pound championship match which was so good that it was selected “Best Finals Match” during the awards ceremony at the New England Championships.
Carrozza and Desiano led the Tigers to fourth place at the 2026 New England Interscholastic Boys Wrestling Championships during the March 7-8 weekend in Providence, R.I. Desiano placed third when he won a 6-0 decision over Caden Hughes of team champion Ponaganset (Rhode Island).
Ponaganset scored 128.5 points while winning its fourth consecutive New England championship and Xavier was runner-up with 119.
Central Catholic-Lawrence (Massachusetts) placed third with 105.5, Ridgefield had 83.5 points, and Scituate (Rhode Island) completed the top five with 75 points.
Fifty teams from New England registered team scores. Danbury had the second highest score from the state while placing 16th with 32 points, and Warde placed 29th with 25 points.
Ridgefield’s junior 113-pounder Cole Desiano and Fairfield Warde’s senior 132-pounder Jude Grammatico were both State Open champions and the two FCIAC wrestlers among the 12 total statewide selected for the 2025-2026 GametimeCT All-State Wrestling First Team.
Ridgefield’s senior 144-pounder John Carrozza, Danbury’s senior 175-pounder Harrison Muller, Fairfield Warde’s senior 190-pounder Dylan O’Brian, and sophomore 215-pounder Julian Rousseau of Staples were the four conference wrestlers selected to the GametimeCT All-State Wrestling Second Team.
Junior 120-pounder Carter Lanzilli and senior 150-pounder Leo Moore of Ridgefield, Danbury’s senior 157-pounder Em’rick Henry, and Trumbull’s freshman 165-pounder Hubert Szymko were the four FCIAC wrestlers who made GametimeCT All-State Honorable Mention.
The wrestlers who made the 2026 All-FCIAC Wrestling First Team, All-FCIAC Second Team, and All-FCIAC Honorable Mention are listed on the link below: