Newtown Youth Wrestlers Win Medals

Newtown’s Over the Top Wrestling Club has had a busy and successful month to this point. The elementary level boys visited New Milford, hosted Danbury Mill Ridge and participated in a quad meet at Danbury’s War Memorial during a ten-day stretch in the middle of the month.

The Newtown Middle School boys competed in recent meets with Ridgefield and Trumbull. As a relatively new and developing team, Newtown showed tremendous skill and competitiveness against stiff opposition, making each match exciting to watch.

In tournament competition, the Over the Top Wrestling Club sported a good turnout at competitions held throughout the state and in New Jersey.

Tournament competition on the weekends is an option that many of the wrestlers look forward to attending. In these events, the competitor is bracketed by age and weight, and wrestles in round-robin or extended round – robin format against boys or girls from different clubs. Medals are awarded for finishes in first, second and third place.

At the January 4 Southington Tournament, at Southington High School, the following boys earned first-place medals: Sean Arnold, Ed Lovely, Anthony Falbo and James Leuci. Second-place medals went to Shaine Luzietti, Michael Schlesinger, Joseph Praino, Andy Hubina and Matthew Gonzales. Third-place medals were awarded to Gren Paynter, Thomas Leuci, Michael Garner, Joshua Harrison and Ryan Wagner.

The January 11 Danbury Tournament, at the Danbury PAL Center was delayed by snow, but worth the wait for the local wrestlers who earned hard-fought wins. Earning first-place medals in their respective brackets were Arnold, Leuci, Wagner and Lovely. Second-place awards went to Paynter, Garner, Forest Speed, Kevin Ross, James Leuci and Luca Crudo. Third-place finishers were Dan Delia, Shaine Luzietti, Danny Schreiber, Robby Schreiber, Dylan Bartlett, Tyler Dickenson, Falbo and Ethan Ross.

In split squad action on January 18, the Over the Top Club had a small contingent of wrestlers go to the Berlin Blast at Berlin High School, and others off to Monroe Township, NJ for an advanced wrestling tournament.

In Berlin, the younger wrestlers displayed fortitude with three boys winning second-place medals: Luzietti, Justin Bogdanoff and Ryan Straiton. Third-place was awarded to Bartlett.

In the New Jersey tournament, Arnold, Lovely, James Leuci and Gonzales earned first-place medals and Crudo took second.