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The Nonnewaug wrestling team captured the school's 24th Berkshire League crown by finishing in a tie for second at the Berkshire Valley Wrestling Championships on Saturday. The conference title is based on points from the regular season and the tournament. (Steve Barlow/For Hearst Connecticut Media)
WINSTED - The king of the Berkshire League mats is back on its throne.
The Nonnewaug wrestling team captured its 24th conference championship Saturday at the Gilbert School, reclaiming the title it lost to the Gilbert-Torrington-Oliver Wolcott Tech co-op (GTO) a year ago.
The Chiefs tied for second place at the Berkshire Valley Wrestling Championships with the Yellowjackets at 139½ points each, just behind the Terryville-Thomaston co-op, which took first with 145.
Nonnewaug, undefeated in BL dual meets, finished with 14 points for the season, three ahead of Terryville-Thomaston and four ahead of GTO. Teams are awarded points for each dual meet win as well as their place at Saturday's tournament. This is the Chiefs' fourth league title in five seasons.
"I really thought Gilbert was going to be the team to beat this year and then Terryville and Derby and then us," said longtime Nonnewaug coach Dave Green. "If you look at the tournament scoring, we were all really close. In dual meets, Gilbert beat Derby, but Derby beat Terryville and Terryville beat Gilbert. We were lucky enough to squeeze out victories over everyone."
Gilbert's Evan Schibi claimed the 165-pound class when Northwestern's Elijah Machia forfeited the final due to a concussion. Schibi, a senior, became the first wrestler to win four BL titles since Northwestern's Anthony Folino in 2019.
Sean Crawford earned the only individual title for Nonnewaug. The senior won the 157-pound class by pinning GTO's Marcus Wesaw at the 1:12 mark after trailing on the scoreboard 8-3.
"I reset myself, took a breath. I knew I could beat him, but I just had to wrestle my match. I was wrestling his match," said Crawford, a two-time league champion. "I caught him, and that was it."
Nonnewaug had three others who reached finals: Danielle Falls at 113, Ethan Testone at 126 and Joey Bernardi at 175.
"We knew we had a good chance (to win the league)," Crawford added. "We're a young team. We've got people sick and injured, but we wanted to wrestle our hardest. You know, don't give up."
"We've got a good group, a good amount of seniors, a good amount of young people," said freshman heavyweight Ronan Anderson. "I knew we were good. I didn't know we'd be this good."
"Although we have a couple of experienced, elite wrestlers, you can't do it with one or two guys. You need the whole team, and we had that this year," Green noted.
Terryville won its first tournament championship since 2016, before it formed the co-op with Thomaston. The Kangaroos boasted three champions: Raymond Alvarado at 120, Dylan Porciello at 132 and Ethan Bochman-Rodriguez at 138.
For Bochman-Rodriguez, it was the senior's third conference championship. He was named the tournament's outstanding wrestler. Alvarado's match with Northwestern's Forest Layton, which ended in a pin at 3:53, was chosen as the outstanding match.
"The ironic thing is we came in here missing four weight classes," said Terryville-Thomaston coach Jason Rodriguez, who won his first title in his four years. "We only came in with 10 weight classes covered. The fact we were able to win it is quite extraordinary."
The Derby-Oxford-Holy Cross co-op boasted four champions: Jax Opotzner, who repeated at 126; Liam McGuire at 190; Brandon Kecko at 215 and heavyweight Horatio Glover.
Three wrestlers who compete as teams of one were first in their class. O'Brien Tech's Chris Micklos (144) and Joseph Santagata-Raslavsky (150) train and travel with the DOHC co-op.
Woodland's Colby Marsan, who trains and travels with Amity, pulled out a thrilling 5-4 decision over Nonnewaug's Bernardi in 175.
Berkshire Valley Wrestling Championships
Team results:Terryville/Thomaston (TT) 145, Nonnewaug 139½, Gilbert-Torrington-Wolcott Tech (GTO) 139½, Derby-Oxford-Holy Cross (DOHC) 139, Northwestern 123, *O'Brien Tech 40, *Woodland 21½, St. Paul 11, *Crosby 6. *-team of one.
Individual results
106:Antonio Zetye (GTO) tech. fall over Delila Langer (NW) 22-5
113: Parker Derochick (NW) pinned Danielle Falls (Non) :16
120: Raymond Alvarado (TT) pinned Forest Layton (NW) 3:53
126: Jax Opotzner (DOHC) pinned Ethan Testone (Non) :26
132: Dylan Porciello (TT) pinned Joshua Collazo (DOHC) 1:53
138:Ethan Bochman-Rodriguez (TT) pinned Mason Pierce (GTO) :39
144:Chris Micklos (OT) dec. Brody Kesi (GTO) 9-3
150: Joseph Santagata-Raslavsky (OT) dec. Eliott Bieluch (GTO) 12-6
157: Sean Crawford (Non) pinned Marcus Wesaw (GTO) 1:12
165: Evan Schibi (GTO) def. Elijah Machia (NW) by forfeit
175: Colby Marsan (Wood) dec. Joey Bernardi (Non) 5-4
190: Liam McGuire (DOHC) dec. Jesse Boutin (TT) 11-4
215: Brandon Kecko (DOHC) pinned Jose Dejesus (GTO) 3:11
285: Horatio Glover (DOHC) pinned Ethan Mello (NW) 2:52
This article originally published at Nonnewaug High wrestling team captures its 24th Berkshire League championship.
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