By Kim J. Harmon

MONROE – Doug Sutherland of Brookfield might have been undefeated in South-West Conference wrestling for the past two seasons, but streaks always have a way of coming to an end … like that one did on Saturday night at the conference championships.

Newtown senior co-captain Alex Read ended himself, capturing the 189-pound SWC title with a 6-3 win over Sutherland at Masuk High School in Monroe. He helped lead the Nighthawks to a seventh-place team finish.

Read – who medalled at the SWCs in 2002-03 (152 pounds) and 2003-04 (171 pounds) – ran his personal winning streak to 18 matches, ran his season record to 30-5, and ran his four-year career win total to 96.

“If I wrestled hard, wrestled well, and wrestled my match I knew I could (beat Sutherland),” said Read. “I was a little nervous and I started out slow, but I got more confident as it went on.”

Read was seeded third in the 189-pound division and reached the finals by virtue of a technical fall of Kyle Bradshaw of New Milford (18-2) and a pin in 3:31 of No. 2 seed Ralph Blunks of Stratford (avenging an earlier regular season loss).

In the finals, Sutherland got off a quick start with a first-period takedown, but Read was able to reverse him with a forced roll and tie the score, 2-2. In the second period, Sutherland chose neutral and neither wrestler was able to force a takedown, but Sutherland was awarded one point when Read was whistled for unnecessary roughness.

In the third, Read chose bottom and was able to reverse Sutherland to take a 4-3 lead and as the third period moved on, Read worked the legs and the power half and picked up a pair of back points to earn the 6-3 win.

“Early on I worked the legs and I found I was able to control him,” said Read, “so I went back to that in the third.”

Co-captain Skye Perry finished runner-up at 160 pounds when he was caught in a first-period pin by Ryan Quinn of New Fairfield, the No. 1-ranked wrestler in Connecticut. Perry earned his trip to the final with a pin in 1:11 of Burak Buyuksolak of Masuk and a pin in 3:00 of Anthony Kostek of Bethel. Perry now has a team-leading 19 pins and a personal 25-7 record.

In other action, Bob Pattison (171) and Justin Bass (140) finished third while Jeff Lipnick (119) finished fourth. Brandon Thomas (215), Ryan Peters (152), Joel Minalgo (275), Colin O’Connor (145), Mark Bonamici (112) all wrestled well, making it to the consolation semi finals (fifth- and sixth-place)

It was a stirring finish for Pattison, who only has nine weeks of wrestling under his belt. He nearly reached the final, but was topped by No. 1 seed Pat Knight of New Milford, 6-4, in the semi-finals. Pattison bounced back with a 3-1 win over Baron Jacobs of Pomperaug and set up another thrilling match with Ben Hadden of Brookfield in the consolation finals.

Earlier in the season, Pattison earned a last-second win over Hadden when he earned a one-point escape and a two-point takedown in the final 12 seconds of the match. On Saturday, it was equally as thrilling.

The two wrestlers battled through three periods and only had a 1-1 score to show for it. In the first sudden death overtime, neither wrestler could score – setting up a 30-second final overtime. With Pattison starting on bottom, all Hadden had to do was keep him down for 30 seconds and the victory would be his … but Pattison would have none of that, bursting to his feet and scoring the escape with 12 seconds left for the victory.

Pattison raised his season record to an outstanding 28-7.

Bass – back from a hip injury that kept him on the shelf for almost three weeks – earned a third-place finish at 140 pounds. He started with a bye and then a pin in 2:47 of Brandon Kennedy of Masuk but then fell to Joe Milone of Brookfield in the semi-finals when Milone caught him with a shoulder toss and a quick pin in the third period.

In the consolation round, Bass pinned Walter Ruilova of Bunnell and defeated Cody Griswold of New Milford, 4-2, to finish third and push his personal record to 18-7.

And junior Jeff Lipnick grabbed the fourth place medal at 119 pounds. He first earned a bye and then a 1:40 pin of Kevin Mooney of Brookfield before losing to Sprios Stefanatos of New Milford. In the consolation bracket, Lipnick pinned Evan Jacobs of Bunnell in 50 seconds before falling to Brendon Ivan of Bethel on a first-period pin.

The ‘Hawks prepared this week for the CIAC Class LL state championships on Friday and Saturday at East Hartford High School.

SWC Championships

TEAMS: 1. New Milford 201.50; 2. New Fairfield 147.00, 3. Pomperaug 129.00, 4. Bethel 112.00, 5. Bunnell 98.50, 6. Brookfield 97.00, 7. Newtown 97.00, 8. Masuk 75.50, 9. Stratford 55.50, 10. Weston-Barlow 49.00.

103: Mikhail Grant (NF) dec. Marc Halper (Bunn) 9-3. 3. Andrew Panetta (Pomp), 4. Andres Garvey (NM); 112: Shawn McKenna (Pomp) dec. Matt Volpe (Brook) 9-1. 3. Will Sherman (NM), 4. Pete Janoski (Strat); 119: Chris Fusco (NF) major dec. Spiros Stefanatos (NM) 10-1. 3. Brendan Ivan (B), 4. Jeff Lipnick (Newt); 125: Nick Palermo (B) tech fall Joe Hall (NM) 17-2. 3. Dennis Bogusky (Bunn), 4. David Mack (Pomp); 130: Pete Stefanatos (NM) dec. Chase Versello (Pomp) 3-1. 3. Rich Rapice (Strat), 4. Dan Makowicki (Bunn); 135: Michael Bellagamba (NM) pinned Jeremy Hodza (B) 1:16. 3. Yuri Avila (Bunn), 4. Andy Kelly (NF); 140: Joe Wabshinak (NF) major dec. Joe Milone (Brook) 15-3. 3. Justin Bass (Newt), 4. Cody Griswold (NM); 145: Samuel Molina (M) dec. Shane Yachulke (NF) 5-1. 3. Jamie Pisano (NM), 4. Nick Annetta (Pomp); 152: Mike Caleca (Pomp) tech fall Washington Gordon (Bunn) 16-0. 3. Mike Kaptein (B), 4. Tony Puppo (NM); 160: Ryan Quinn (NF) pinned Skye Perry (Newt) 1:34. 3. Anthony Kostek (B), 4. Ryan Hehn (Bunn); 171: Pat Knight (NM) dec. Christian Goodspeed (B) 10-8. 3. Bob Pattison (Newt), 4. Ben Hadden (Brook); 189: Alex Read (Newt) dec. Doug Sutherland (Brook) 4-3. 3. Jason Sandler (Weston-Barlow); 4. Jon Turkett (M); 215: Nick Cupo (NF) dec. Jordan Kannon (W-B) 4-2. 3. Max Beaudry (Brook), 4. Alan Reis (M); 275: Tom Ferrell (NM) pinned Paul Fenaroli (M) 3:18. 3. Chris Mucerino (Strat), 4. Nick Fiore (Brook).