Wrestlers Benefit From Long-Lasting Tourneys

By Andy Hutchison

Newtown High School’s wrestling team, like any high school wrestling team, competes in midweek dual meets as well as weekend tournaments throughout the season. Those tourneys can be lengthy, often lasting all day with weigh-ins starting at 8 am and competition beginning at 10 and running until the mid- or late afternoon.

Participating in tourneys with several teams means as many as four matches in one day for grapplers (forfeits sometimes create byes). There is a mandatory 45-minute break between each individual wrestler’s matches — and good thing for those breaks.

“It’s definitely a strain on your body going one match after another,” said Newtown’s 160-pound weight class wrestler Brian Kuruc, adding that grapplers grow accustomed to competing in four matches in a span of three hours.

Kuruc earned a pair of wins in Saturday’s tourney at Staples High School in Westport.

Some wrestlers earns wins via opponents’ forfeits when the opposing teams simply don’t have a wrestler for a particular weight category. Sometimes coaches will have their wrestlers forfeit their weight class depending on the strength of opponent to save their energy for another, potentially more winnable match.

“It gets tiring,” NHS Coach Alan Potter said of a wrestler’s day at a tournament.

Newtown’s top grappler, senior captain and 130-pound weight class competitor John Gouveia, won three matches and another by forfeit on Saturday.

“You’ve got to have that desire — it’s tough,” Gouveia said of a long day on the mats. At the same time, however, battling in consecutive meets can be beneficial, he added. “You kind of get warmed up as the day goes on,” Gouveia said.

Those long days on the mats are beneficial for the competitors gaining exposure to their sport, the Newtown coach said.

“It helps us because the more mat time they get the more experience they get,” Potter said.

The tourneys also pay dividends as the season unfolds because they provide lengthy workouts that can’t be mimicked in practice.

“It’s another way of getting in shape,” Potter said. “They have to be strong physically and mentally — and they have to develop good technique and use it effectively.”

Newtown went 1-3 in Saturday’s tourney, defeating Bridgeport 60-18 and falling to Platt Tech (51-12), Guilford (48-16) and Fairfield Prep in a nail-biter (37-36). For tournament highlights, see below.