Nighthawk Grapplers Help Dethrone Danbury, Earn TenthIn LLs

By Andy Hutchison

TRUMBULL — Newtown High School’s wrestling team, led by top-six placements by five grapplers, came in tenth among 27 schools at the Class LL State Championships at Trumbull High on February 18 and 19.

Newtown scored 93.5 points. Tourney winner, Xavier, scored 200 to dethrone defending champion Danbury (181).

The Nighthawks were led by Cory Fisher, who earned third place in the 171-pound weight division; Mac Morlock, who was fourth at 285; Ian McEvoy and Aaron Nezvesky, fifth at 135 and 189, respectively; and Joe Pieretti, who came in sixth in the 145 division. The top four finishers in each weight class move on to compete in the State Open, slated for this Friday and Saturday, February 25 and 26, at the New Haven Athletic Center. In other words, the season lives on for Fisher and Morlock. Fisher is seeded ninth and Morlock 15th.

“This is really what we prepare the kids for,” Newtown Coach Alan Potter said of the long season culminating with the championships.

“It’s a very long tournament,” Potter continued, referring to the LL event. “There’s generally well over 22 kids per weight class, so it’s two grueling days, and it really tests the fortitude and the mental capacity of those kids — their emotions, and everything. And you never know who’s going to overcome the problem of facing another wrestler they’ve never wrestled before and has a better record and that sort of thing.”

Potter was thrilled to have a handful of his grapplers place and noted that the school’s tenth-place state finish was the best Newtown has had in his 13 years of coaching there.

The Nighthawks played a big role in ending Danbury’s reign atop Class LL; the Hatters had won 14 consecutive LL titles before this year’s change of the guard. Fisher, McEvoy, Pieretti, and Morlock all defeated Danbury wrestlers en route to their tourney placement.

In the LL championships, Fisher had a first-round bye, then pinned two opponents before being defeated and knocked into the consolation bracket. There, Fisher had two byes before winning two matches to earn third. Seeded fourth, Fisher defeated No. 7 Tyler Hancock of Danbury, pinning his opponent in 2:00 to earn a spot in the third-place match. Fisher proceeded to earn a hard-fought 6-5 decision over No. 3 Dainius Lancinskas of Conard to claim the third spot.

Morlock, seeded tenth at 285, had a bye and lost in his first actual match, then battled through the consolation round with four wins, all via pins, before finally losing a 1-0 decision to No. 2 Marquise Weaver of Westhill High in Stamford in his final match.