A half dozen of Newtown High School's wrestling team members, because of their top-six performances at the Class LL state championships at Trumbull High on February 20, will compete in the State Open at New Haven's Floyd Little Athletic Center, February 26-27.

The Nighthawks had three first-place weight division champions, a runner-up finisher, and a pair of third-place grapplers as the team placed third.

The Nighthawks scored 174 points, nine better than fourth-place Trumbull. Fairfield Warde, with 202, was runner-up to Danbury, which compiled 268.5.

In the 170 pound weight class championship round, Newtown's Joe Accousti, the top seed, earned a 10-0 major decision over Simsbury's Luke Salls, who was seeded third.

At 182, top seed Anthony Falbo recorded his fourth pin of the tournament by defeating Danbury's Matthew Adam, the third seed, in 2:25. It was by far Falbo's toughest match as he pinned his other three opponents in 30, 19, and 35 seconds.

Third-seeded Tom Long wrestled his way to the title in the 220 division, capping his effort with a 6-0 decision over No. 5 John Ocana of Fairfield Warde.

"It felt really good. It's a long tournament," said Long, noting that there was a lot of sitting around between bouts before refocusing on competition as the day unfolded. "I think, overall, we did better than expected."

Ed Lovely was runner-up at 145, Aaron Occhipinti placed third at 126, and Alex Stavola placed third at 152.

Seventh-seeded Occhipinti, after two byes and a win by pin fall, was beaten in the quarterfinals but had a strong showing in the wrestlebacks, coming away with two pin falls wins and a pair of victories by way of decisions, culminating with a 6-3 win over Fairfield Warde's Alex Steele, the No. 2 seed, whom he lost to by a 4-3 score in the quarters.

Lovely, the third seed at 145, had two pin fall triumphs and a 3-1 sudden victory overtime win over No. 2 Keith Fernandes of Simsbury before being beaten in a 5-1 decision by No. 1 seed Charles Kane of Fairfield Warde in the pinnacle match.

Stavola, a third seed, had a pair of wins via pin before losing to eventual champion Ryan Devivo of Xavier of Middletown, in the semis. Stavola bounced back with a pair of wrestleback wins, capped by a 3-0 decision over No. 4 Jarek Laplant of Danbury.

Accousti had three wins by pin fall before his major decision triumph, and Long recorded a win by fall, a regular decision, and a major decision en route to the finals.

In addition to the half-dozen open qualifiers, freshman Nik Accousti, at 106 pounds, came to within one win of advancing.

Also competing for Newtown were Justin Bogdanoff at 113, Jack Wellman in the 120 division, Owen Walsh at 132, Anthony Piazza at 138, and Peter Mihok in the 160 grouping.

Newtown captured the state title a year ago, and scored better than most of the 25 teams in this year's bracket, despite losing about half of its starting lineup to graduation.

"Considering what we have this year I thought we had a really good tournament," said Newtown Coach Chris Bray, whose lineup had a couple of holes with no grappler in the heavyweight division, and 195-pounder Andy Hubina out with an injury.

"We've been working pretty hard in the practice room. We did what we expected to do," Falbo said.