Trumbull High’s Cross Cannone and Stephen Briganti earned individual titles at the Class LL wrestling championships on Saturday.
Newtown High (282.5) won the team title, followed by Danbury (231), Simsbury (189), Xavier-Middletown (189) and host Trumbull (183).
The top-seeded Cannone won four matches, including a 10-0 victory over second-seeded Zachary Bylaykbashi from Southington in the finals.
“This is one of the stepping stones,” Cannone said. “I wanted this here in front of the home crowd Next comes trhe State Open and the New Englands.
“I’d never wrestled Bylaykbashi before, but he was a State Open finalist last year before moving up a weight class.
“Tonight was a chance to showcase the hard work and help I’ve received from family, coaches and teammates.”
Briganti, who like his classmate was a No. 1 seed and also allowed opponents only one total point against him (clasping hands), cruised to a 6-0 win over No. 3 Thomas Reardon from Glastonbury to win the 160-pound crown.
“I’ve seen everybody here,” Briganti said of the wrestlers he faced. “Connor Lemay (from Newtown) handed me my only loss this year, 3-2.
“For four years now, coaches have been drilling into me, ‘Attack, attack.’ So I went after it.”
LeMay, the fourth seed, lost to Briganti 6-1 in the semifinals.
Adam Angelucci was the other finalist for the Eagles, and the 152-pounder dropped a 5-3 decision to top-seeded Joe Accousti from Newtown in the title bout.
Angelucci, the sixth seed, won decisions of 4-0 and 5-3 before pinning Greenwich’s Ethan Ross in 4:54 of their semifinal.
Coach Niko Filippakis said, “I wish we could have put a couple more kids through, but a lot of the matches were close and some we came out ahead in and some we didn’t.
“It was good to place this many wrestlers in front of our home crowd.”
Joining the three finalists at the State Open in New Haven this coming weekend will be Tristan Haviland, who took third at 106 pounds and Dante Montanaro, who was third at 126. Joining the Champion of Wrestlers’ event are Joey Ryan, who was fourth at 170 pounds, and Michael Mirmina, who placed fifth at 120 pounds.