Youth Wrestlers Set Records At  Tourney

Members of the Newtown Youth Wrestling Association (NYWA) competed in the Southington Sharkfest Kickoff Tournament at Southington High School on January 2. The NYWA was represented by a team-record 34 wrestlers between the elementary and middle school squads.

The Newtown name was called from the scorer’s table throughout the day, and several Newtown grapplers were rewarded for their hard work with 27 medals overall, another team record.

William Henkel and Zach Robinson led off the Mighty Mites division by each winning gold medals. The morning session continued with the Bantam division and saw Michael Carpenter (silver) and Harrison Silverman (bronze) enjoying early success. In the Intermediate division the team had gold-medal efforts from Sean Arnold, Justin Bogdanoff, Gren Paynter, and Shaine Luzietti. Silver medal winners were Evan Rooney and Ryan Straiton, and Steven White and Owen Perchuck added to the totals with bronze medals for their efforts.

The second session saw the Novice and Middle School divisions bring home eight gold medals among the 17 competitors. Highlighting the first-place finishers was Ed Lajoie (3-0, all three hard fought, all-out effort victories), Dylan Bartlett (3-0, three pins), and Kevin Ross (3-0, two pins). Also earning gold medals in Southington were Michael Garner, Joseph Accousti, Matt Gonzalez, Joseph Priano, and James Leuci. Other afternoon session medal winners were Anthony Falbo, Edward Lovely, Ethan Ross, Forest Speed (all of whom won silver), and Simon Preston, Thomas Leuci, and James Brown (bronze).