The Day – NFA second, New London third at ECC wrestling tournament

Killingly — The semifinal round of the Eastern Connecticut Conference wrestling tournament had been completed Saturday and Norwich Free Academy head coach Steve Nelson took a look at the team scores.

The Wildcats were way back in the middle of the pack. Seventh place, to be exact.

“I remember thinking, ‘oh, boy’,” Nelson said.

NFA began grinding away in the consolation round. It had seven place-winners in those rounds, more than any other team, and stormed back to finish runner-up to four-time champion Killingly, 184.5-153, and clinch the ECC Division I title.

“We made one heck of a comeback today,” Nelson said. “I’m super proud of those guys. They showed another gritty performance. They’ve done it all year. I can’t say enough about them.

“We had some disappointments (at the tournament) and they overcame them. They didn’t let it hold them back and they wrestled just as hard coming back and taking those thirds, fourths and fifth-place medals. They did a great job. They didn’t quit.”

Winning the ECC Division I title was even sweeter for NFA because that division accounted for second-through-fifth place. New London finished third (150.5), followed by the East Lyme/Norwich Tech co-op (150) and Fitch (140).

“It was very nice,” Nelson said. “It was definitely in flux for quite a while but (the team) pulled it out.”

Top-seeded Jaiden James was the Wildcats’ lone champion as he defeated Montville freshman Luke Chapman, 6-4, at 120 pounds.

“I was a little nervous (in the third period),” James said. “I got a little tired at the end but I still came out with the win.”

Connor DeVega (138), Thomas Brunelli (145) and Zaire Wallace (170) finished third, Brendan Vine finished fourth at heavyweight and Brock Nowakowski (106), Jackson Soral (126) and Ryan Surprenant (195) all placed fifth for NFA.

“Brock Nowakowski and Ryan Surprenant are both first-year freshmen wrestlers and made it all the way to the semifinals,” Nelson said. “I’m super-proud of them.”

New London was quite happy with its performance after an up-and-down season in which they dealt with injuries, missed three tournaments due to either the weather or COVID-19 issues, and were in third place in the ECC Division I.

The Whalers had the most place-winners at the tournament (nine).

“I had zero expectations this year,” New London head coach Mike Gorton said. “There was just a positive vibe amongst the kids from (Friday) that carried into today. Mus (Mustafa Dannett) and Tristen (Robledo-Thompson) came up to me and were like, ‘Yo, I’m really excited about ECCs.’ And I was like, Alright. Okay. So I don’t have to do much coaching. I feel like almost all of us wrestled loose and that was the key.

“A lot of people stepped up. It was awesome. The best ECC meet we’ve wrestled.”

Dannett, a senior, defeated Waterford sophomore Devon Powers, 4-1, to win the 170-pound championship.

“I’m happy just to see (my) progress because at first, I wasn’t even going to wrestle this year,” Dannett said. “To see how far I came from literally not wanting to wrestle to now an ECC champion is just a blessing.”

Asked why he came back for his senior year, Dannett said, “I knew my team really looked up to me. I’ve got a lot of young ones that I look out for and I love them all. They’re like family and they’re just hilarious. It’s always a good time.”

Tristen Robledo-Thompson, who had wrestled just eight matches prior to the tournament due to injury, was runner-up at 138 pounds. Also, Jorge Gonzalez-Garcia (113) finished third, Jhandel Marchial (195), Christian Ortiz (182) and Kaden Smith (220) and Kanye Nance (160) all placed fourth and Andy Martinez-Soliz (120) and heavyweight Demarcus Green both came in fifth.

Marchial’s finish is noteworthy because he was 0-2 during the regular season having just been elevated to varsity last week due to injuries.

Killingly, with four individual champions, including the tournament’s Outstanding Wrestler (Jack Richardson at 145 pounds), dominated the field again.

Ledyard senior Connor Doran (132) and senior Mason Concasia of Waterford (152) both won their second ECC titles.

Unbeaten senior Blake Chapman of Montville was the 138-pound champion and Fitch junior Melakai Maddox won at 160 pounds.

East Lyme/Norwich Tech senior Noah Santiago won the heavyweight championship after separating his shoulder twice this season.

Ledyard freshman Joseph Crader was one of the most pleasant surprises of the tournament. He was seeded fourth at 113 pounds and pinned East Lyme’s Lukas McKusick in the final.

n.griffen@theday.com