Newtown High School’s wrestling team, led by Joe Zeller’s run the title in the heavyweight division, tied East Hartford for 12th in the Class LL state wrestling championships, at Trumbull High, on February 16.

Newtown scored 71.5 points. Danbury, with 250, won the team title.

Zeller pinned his pinnacle battle opponent, Danbury’s Jordan Agosto, in 2:57 to put an exclamation point on an exhausting day for the captain.

Zeller overcame tough opponents, deficits in some of his matches, and feeling a bit under the weather to prevail, a nice encore to his South-West Conference title.

He won two matches via pinfall and two in decisions, including a 6-4 overtime triumph to get past Staples of Westport’s Jacob Rizy.

“We had a very tough quarterfinal matchup; we had to battle for that one. In the semifinals we had some adversity going against us. We fell behind. We had to wrestle from behind to get to OT,” Newtown Coach Ron Chivinski said of Zeller’s efforts. “He had to earn this championship. Nothing was given for free.”

“My body kept acting up on me so I just had to keep fighting through that,” Zeller said.

Zeller was second in last year’s state championships.

“It feels amazing,” the heavyweight grappler said of coming out on top.

Zeller will go for a third championship in next week’s State Open.

Nik Accousti also earned a trip to the State Open. Accousti placed third in the 132 pound division when he earned a 3-0 decision over Norwich Free Academy’s Dominic Renfree.

Chivinski likes Accousti’s chances to win his weight class at the Open.

“Nik Accousti has as much of a chance as anybody in the state of Connecticut to do it,” the coach said.

Steven Leuci will also represent Newtown in the State Open. Leuci earned sixth place in the 160 pound division.

“He’s an unbelievable teammate and hard worker in the wrestling room,” said Chivinski, adding that he was pleased to see that pay off for his sophomore wrestler.