Newtown Youth Wrestlers Compete In Maine,Come Home With Hardware

Newtown’s Over The Top (OTT) Wrestling Club competed at the Marshwood Invitational Tournament in Portland, Maine, on April 3.

The club, comprising boys ages 4 to 14, participated through special invitation to this prestigious 18-mat event held in the Cumberland County Civic Center.

It is one of the largest youth wrestling events in the Northeast, drawing clubs from all six New England States. More than 1,350 wrestlers from 91 different teams competed in the daylong event.

The Newtown traveling squad sent 23 boys who have been practicing and competing together since the season began in late October.

The competition, a double elimination style event, was an intense and challenging format for even the most accomplished grappler. Many of the participants were current and former New England champions.

The Newtown boys distinguished themselves at all age levels led by three first place finishers, Luca Crudo, Andy Hubina, and Kevin Ross, Jr.

Also excelling were second place finishers Sean Arnold, Edward Lovely, Jared Willsey (Bethel), Jon Cole (Bethel) and Gren Paynter; third place finishers Matt Gonzalez and Joe Accousti; and fourth place finishers Chris Lajoie, Janos Lobb (Southbury), Michael Gardner, and James Leuci.

 Other members of the team competing at Marshwood were Ethan Ross, William Henckel, Justin Bogdanoff, Ryan Straiton, Thomas Leuci, Joe Praino, Ed Lajoie, Jack Lynch, and Dylan Bartlett.

The OTT team scored high in the team standings with almost all wrestlers finishing in the top six spots in their brackets and contributing points toward the overall championship.

The Midget division (born 2000–01) finished in 17th place out of 61 teams, the Novice boys (born 1998–99) finished 11th out of 52 entries, and the Schoolboys (born 1995–97) finished fourth among 67 teams.