Minutemen Youth Wrestling

It was a day that started with our older wrestlers having tough seeds in their brackets and only Derrick Durity able to place third at 112 pounds Novice Division. Cameron Banks almost pulled off two upsets on the day. First he knocked off the number 3 seed from Danbury who had beaten him five times previous 6-1. Then in Cameron's second match he lost a close decision to DeSilvo from Milford 9-8. Ryan Bisson who returned from a broken thumb and was in the largest bracket in the tournament (26 wrestlers) beat Franzese from Bethel 16-5 before losing to JD Damoci 8-5. Jack Banks lost to Sam Schwartz of Northwest. In the Midget Division the Minutemen had their first champion as Mason Powers cruised through his division with two 12-0 Technical Falls. Mason finished the tournament season undefeated. Sean Pentalow lost his first match to Kevin Connolly 4-2 but then won two matches and had a rematch with Connolly for third place. This time it was a different match as Pentalow shutdown his Southington opponent 9-0 for third place. Ryan Butler was in a bracket that featured some of the best wrestlers in the State. Ryan lost to Olsson from Milford 4-2, beat Finney from Ledyard by Technical Fall 12-0 and then lost to Murphy from Canton 10-1. Tyler Cunningham lost his first match against a tough Avon opponent then had a bye before reeling off two wins 10-2 and 6-5 for 3rd place in the 70 pound Midget weight class. The Bantams (1995-1996) were highlighted by Anthony Zovich and Matthew Cote wrestling in the same bracket. Zovich pinned his opponent from New Fairfield, lost 6-1 to Battestini from Preston beat teammate Cote 4-1 and then beat his New Milford opponent at the buzzer 7-6 for third place. Matthew Cote, last to Cianciollo from Milford 7-5 then pinned his Derby opponent in the first period before losing to Zovich. Colin Cunningham lost 10-7 to McAllster from Colchester then pinned another Colchester opponent in 59 seconds before losing to his Preston opponent by pin. Brendan Butler had a bye in his first match and spent six hours waiting to get on a mat for the first time during the day which he lost 5-4. He then wrestled an opponent from Bethel and dropped a tough 3-1 decision ending his day. Jacob Eliades opened the day with a pin of Kenyon from Groton then lost to a tough Milford opponent 11-1. He rebounded and pinned Mike Mayo from South Windsor by pin before dropping a 2-0 decision settling for a fourth place medal. In the Mighty Might Division Jeremy Eliades was the big surprise on the day. He pinned his first opponent, then beat Garcia from Danbury 10-4, pinned Keith from Preston in 16 seconds and then beat Poirier from Bristol 12-1. A special thanks to the coaches: Paul Powers, Lou Eliades, Alan Bisson who did a great job keeping the kids in each match. Also to our parents who helped at the mat: Mike Cunningham, Bob Butler and Carlos Zovich. This was a good State Tournament for our guys. Seven of our fifteen wrestlers brought home medals. Said Coach Roger Moss. "I was proud of the effort our boys put on the mat." Most of these boys will be traveling to Maine the first weekend in April to compete in the Marshwood New England Kids Championships.