After 364 days, Newtown Youth Wrestling Association is once again back in its rightful place as New England Town Team Champion. After winning three straight years from 2022-2024, Newtown narrowly missed a four-peat in 2025, losing to Danbury by two points. But Newtown thrived off of the defeat and used it as fuel to propel itself back to the top.

Held at the Game On complex in Fitchburg, Mass. March 14-15, the New England Championships are a two-day event where wrestlers come from all over New England to see how they stack up against the best from each state. Wrestlers must be a medaling place finisher in their state tournament to qualify.

Newtown got off to a strong start in the Saturday morning session, where several of its 8U and 10U wrestlers fought hard to earn All-New England honors. Placing for the first time was Evan Emard (10U — 88 pounds, third) and Callum Carl (10U — 52 pounds, third), as well as Michael Laake (8U — 44 pounds, fifth) and Joey Guagliano (8U — 52 pounds, fifth). Joey Bartolic (10U — 125 pounds, fourth) and Christian Olteau (8U — 120 pounds, first) earned their first trips to the podium.

Things only improved from there in the 12U afternoon session, where Newtown crowned its first New England champion. Ben Weintraub (first) won his 74 pounds weight class, beating fellow Newtown teammate Matt Iacuone (second) in the finals. Chase Ibbitson followed it with a third place at 81 pounds, wrestling seven matches and going 6-1 in the tournament. Drew Van Scotter (12U — 88 pounds, fifth) reached the semifinals before dropping a match, but wrestled back for fifth place. At the end of Saturday scoring, Newtown as a team was in second place, seven points behind Danbury.

On Sunday, Newtown wrestlers showed their mettle and separated themselves from the pack with two more champions, one runner-up, and a fifth place in the Middle School division. Allen Gaudenzi repeated as a three-time New England Champion, earning victory by technical fall in the finals at 118 pounds. Allen didn’t give up a point in the entire tournament. Joey Cotter won his 100 pounds bracket, pinning every opponent he faced, never wrestling a match for longer than a minute the entire tournament for his second championship. Camron Veneziano took second place in the 106 pounds bracket, losing a close match to another nationally-ranked wrestler. Drake Oatis earned fifth place at 136 pounds, wrestling back from a tough loss in the quarterfinals to earn the team points.

Newtown also had two girls earn All-New England status. Jane Anderson followed up her New England Championship in 2025 with a fourth place finish in 2026. Emmie Ibbitson also earned fourth place, giving Newtown its first ever multiple girl place finishers at the New England tournament.

At the end of Sunday, Newtown’s championship grit propelled the wrestlers to the top as they outscored Danbury on Sunday 49-35 to move into the top spot with a total team score of 96 points to Danbury’s 89. Coming in third was Methuen, Mass. with 66. This is Newtown’s fourth championship in the last five years.

“Reclaiming the New England Youth Wrestling Championship means everything to our program, After winning it three years in a row and losing it by just two points last season, our wrestlers learned how to turn a setback into motivation,” Head Coach Curtis Urbina said. “Our philosophy is simple — stay in the fight and wrestle to the final second. This title reflects the hard work, resilience, and commitment of every athlete, coach, and family in our organization.”

Travel Head Coach Mike Long echoed Curtis: “This was a complete team effort. Every single wrestler played a role in this success. Even those that didn’t qualify or didn’t place helped by keeping a high standard, great effort in the room, and helped this team to continue to strive to be the best we can. It’s weekends like this that shows how resilient these young athletes are to persevere, even through moments that seem impossible or when the deck is stacked against them. As a coach, I cannot be more proud of how they handled this adversity and came out even better on the other side. We have such an incredible group of athletes and parents, I couldn’t imagine wanting to be anywhere else but Newtown.”

Finally, Newtown Youth Wrestling Association team President Kyle Ibbitson received the greatest compliment after the tournament was all over. After receiving the championship trophy and heading for the door, National Wrestling Hall of Fame member Ken DeStefanis grabbed him and said, “You guys have a great program. And more than that, you win the right way. You are great leaders and your program has the absolute best reputation. You should be proud.”

Ibbitson couldn’t have agreed more after what had been a very trialing two days of intense wrestling. “Just like in life, nothing in wrestling is given. Everything must be earned. There are no shortcuts or an ‘easy way.’ It’s hard to not get emotional when the team achieves the goal it set out to achieve back in November of last year,” Ibbitson said. “We are so thankful for all of the hard work each wrestler has put into this season. But also the work the coaches, families, and community have done to support our program. None of this can be accomplished without everyone buying in together.”

For many wrestlers, this is the end of the road for the 2025-2026 season. A few wrestlers will continue on to the National High School Coaches Association (NHSCA) national tournament in Virginia Beach on March 28. And Newtown is proud to have graduated more than ten eighth graders from the program into high school. But the process never ends, and just as the competition continues to work to get better, so will the Newtown wrestlers, who will now start their offseason training programs. Be on the lookout for NYWA’s car wash in August at Newtown Middle School and free clinics in September and October at Edmond Town Hall. Registration for 2026-2027 opens in early September.