Individual champions Charlie Costanzo and Dean Smith lead Danbury past Ledyard for eighth-straight state title; Wilbur Cross survives conference tournament to remain unbeaten.
By Hal Levy, Shore Line Newspapers
Special to MaxPreps.com
Danbury scored 106.5 points to win its eighth-straight CIAC state open wrestling championship last weekend in New Haven.
Ledyard scored 96.5 to mount a respectable challenge with Windham (73.5) third, Middletown (69) fourth, and Amity Regional-Woodbridge (56.5) fifth. Rounding out the top 10 were Griswold (55), Woodstock Academy (50), New Milford (49.5), Daniel Hand-Madison (46.5) and Cheshire (42).
Danbury had two individual winners: Charlie Costanzo at 119 pounds and Dean Smith at 152.
Griswold also had two: Tyler Banks at 130 and Coutu at 135 as did Ledyard with C.J. Satti at 140 and Julian Hightower at 189. Woodstock got two from R.J. LeBeef at 103 and Noah Smutnick at 112.
Other champs were Windham’s Nick Marouski at 125, Derek Fish of Hand at 145, Ron Thompson of Westhill-Stamford at 160, Tim Vollaro of Somers at 171, Richard Perry of Middletown at 215 and Reshannon Stanley of Weaver-Hartford at 275.
Coutu was named the meet’s outstanding wrestler while Banks and LeBeef both finished undefeated seasons with 44-0 records. Stanley got the tournament’s fastest fall award with four pins in an aggregate 14:41.
The open was snowed out last Friday and was moved to a Saturday-Sunday finish.
Boys Basketball
Wilbur Cross-New Haven stands tallest among the state’s boys’ basketball conference tournament champs. The Governors, 23-0, survived a rash of upsets in the Southern Connecticut Conference tournament and beat upstart Amity Regional-Woodbridge in the title game, 74-58.
Amity was the 14th seed in the 15-team field and had upset Branford, 57-52, Hillhouse-New Haven, 61-52 and Career-New Haven, 70-66, to get to the finals. Cross had a first-round bye and then beat Cheshire, 87-62 and Lyman Hall-Wallingford, 68-45.
Meanwhile Windsor, which had won 22 in a row and was second in the New Haven Register media poll (Wilbur Cross was first) lost the Central Connecticut Conference final to Bulkeley-Hartford, 77-76, Thursday night.
Others in the poll included Crosby-Waterbury third, followed by New London, Norwich Free Academy, Trinity Catholic-Stamford, St. Joseph-Trumbull, Notre Dame-West Haven and Holy Cross-Waterbury.
Several other title games were scheduled Friday and some were postponed to Saturday because of an oncoming snow storm.
The state tournaments begin Monday and one team which has been below the radar might emerge. Warren Harding-Bridgeport got coach Charlie Bentley back after he missed 45 days due to a suspension while an investigation went on over an allegation he has slapped a female freshman student.
Girls Basketball
The girls’ state tournaments have gotten to the quarterfinal stage with all games scheduled for Friday postponed because of the weather.
The top seed in three of the four divisions has already been eliminated: Wethersfield in Class L, East Hampton in Class M and Shepaug Valley-Washington in Class S. Shepaug lost to Coventry, 32-26, in the second round; East Hampton fell to Berlin, 39-33, in overtime in the second round and Wethersfield lost to East Lyme, 55-52, in overtime in the first round. Class LL leader Holy Cross-Waterbury, has advanced to the quarter-finals.
In the penultimate media/coaches poll, Holy Cross was ranked first with Trinity Catholic-Stamford and New Britain tied for second; Career-New Haven fourth, Bulkeley-Hartford fifth, Kolbe Cathedral-Bridgeport sixth, Lauralton Hall-Milford seventh, Mercy-Middletown eighth, East Hampton ninth and Avon tenth.
Ice Hockey
Hamden continues to lead the New Haven Register’s media poll in ice hockey with a 16-3-1 record including the regular-season finale victory over sixth-ranked Notre Dame-West Haven, 3-2.
East Haven (18-2) is second and has won six straight. South Windsor (18-2) is third with Ridgefield (17-4) fourth and Glastonbury (15-3-1) fifth.
The rest of the top 10 includes Notre Dame-West Haven, Darien, Conard-West Hartford, Notre Dame-Fairfield and Trinity Catholic-Stamford.
