Defending champion Xavier knew it had work to do as the championship round of the Class LL wrestling championships began. Despite the Falcons advancing eight wrestlers to semifinal matches and five to championship matches, Xavier trailed Danbury 228-218 going into the championship round due to an excellent performance by the Hatters in their consolation matches. If they wanted to win a second consecutive championship, the Falcons would have to perform nearly flawlessly. In one of the biggest pressure situations imaginable, each Xavier finalist did so.
Each of Xavier’s five finalists won an individual title, giving the Falcons 242 points and their second straight Class LL championship. Danbury finished second with 232 points and Trumbull paced third with 153 points.
Xavier’s title winners were sophomore Will Chowanek (113 pounds), senior Tyler Cunningham (160), junior Elliot Antler (170), senior Jake Whalen (180) and senior Sean Marinan Jr. (220).
The most significant win was Sean Marinan’s. Xavier came into his championship match only six points ahead of Danbury and a loss by Marinan to the Hatters Oswaldo Garcia would have tied the two teams.
The senior battled his way to an early score and hung on to defeat Garcia 5-4 and give his squad a well-earned championship.
“Was there pressure?” Marinan asked the Hartford Courant. “No, I didn’t even know the score.”
Will Chowanek got the Falcons going with a 3-2 decision over Conor Caffrey of South Windsor in the 113-pound championship, his second consecutive individual title after winning at 102 pounds last year.
I really didn’t expect it to be this close,” said Chowanek to the New Haven Register. “I wanted to come out strong. The take down in the second period is the move that won it for me. My goal was to get as many points for my team as I could.”
“Winning the Class LL championship means everything to me, it means everything to our team. We’re the defending champs and that’s what we wanted to do, defend our title.”
Tyler Cunningham pinned Joseph Roberts of Fairfield Prep in just 1:58 to win the 160-pound title. Elliot Antler won the 170 championship with a decisive 11-4 victory over Ryan Whittle of Greenwich and Jake Whalen took down Zachary Maxwell of Southington in 2:50 to win the 195 title.
The victory earned Xavier a measure of revenge. Danbury, who came into the championship meet ranked No. 1 in the Norwich Bulletin coaches’ poll, defeated them 43-17 at the end of December and was ranked ahead of the Falcons for the entire season. Xavier’s back-to-back Class LL titles establishes them as one of the top programs in the state and worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as Danbury, who won 14 consecutive titles from 1997-2010.
“I knew coming in here we were the underdogs because Danbury’s been kicking everyone’s butt this season,” Xavier Head Coach Mike Cunningham stated to the Register. “I can’t explain the feelings I have right now winning the title two years in a row.”
“We had good matchups in the championships. I’m so proud of our guys.”
Xavier know takes their Class LL, as well as its SCC championship, with them to the State Open this Friday and Saturday at the Floyd Little Athletic Center in New Haven. With a bevy of outstanding wrestlers in tow the Falcons are confident they can improve on the team’s disappointing sixth place finish in the 2011 State Open.
“I just hope we learned from it,” Cunningham said to the Courant. “We are going to enjoy this, but we get together and regroup on Monday, then have a good week of practice and go from there.”
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