Date: Fri 28-Feb-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: TOMW

Quick Words:

hecnkel-wrestling-title

Full Text:

Billy Henckel Wins Class L Wrestling Title

B Y T. W YATT

BRISTOL- When Billy Henckel went out for the Newtown High School wrestling

team last winter, as a first-year junior, the furthest thing from his mind was

becoming the school's next state champion wrestler.

Without an ounce of wrestling experience, Henckel went out for the team to

help fill holes in the upper weight classes. He figured if he could win half

of his matches then he helped the team who would otherwise forfeit the

heavyweight division.

After a stunning 17-4 season that saw him nearly win a conference title,

Henckel shaved off 12 pounds and slimmed down to 215 midway through this

season and bumped down a weight class. Lean and mean, Henckel lost only once

since making that move.

The loss, coming back on February 15, again cost him a conference title. But

he wasn't going to let it happen again.

Henckel placed third in the SWC championship meet and only a week later, on

Saturday, February 22, he made school history. At the CIAC Class L state

championships in Bristol, Henckel conquered the field at 215 pounds winning

all five of his matches to become Newtown's first state champion in this

decade.

"I was pretty excited going into the final," said Henckel, who pinned Brian

Green of Holy Cross in the opening minute of the second period to take the

crown. "I had seen him [Green] wrestle earlier and was confident I'd beat

him."

Confident or not, the third-seeded Henckel had no trouble with any of his five

Class L competitors. On Friday night the NHS senior pinned both his boys. On

Saturday, he won a 14-3 decision before pinning the second seed from Brien

McMahon in the semifinal and then Green - who had upset the top-seed in his

semifinal match.

In addition to earning the school's only state title in years, Henckel was

also honored to receive the tournament's "Fast Fall Award." Heckel got that by

virtue of recording his four pins in a tournament-low total time of 8:37.

"It feels good," Henckel said. "It was a big move going down to 215 this year.

Before I weighed around 227 and I was going up against guys a lot heavier than

me. When you get behind its hard to move some of those guys around. At 215,

nobody's heavier."

Henckel will next compete at the State Open, this weekend, in Glastonbury.

Each of the top four finishers from Class LL, L, M, and S compete for the

State Open title in each weight class. There, Henckel hopes to get another

shot at the only 215-pounder who beat him, New Fairfield's John French.

French won the title in Class M. "I don't know any of the other guys I'll be

wrestling," Billy said. "That's wrestling. You just get who you get."

Earlier in the day Saturday, Newtown's first shot at a state title went by the

boards when NHS sophomore James Monroe fell 7-6 in the 130-pound final to Matt

Huskey of Fitch. Monroe took a 34-1 record into the title match only to suffer

his second loss of the year, and first to a Connecticut wrestler.

The "Prez" led his match 6-5 headed into the final minute of the match until

Huskey scored a takedown at 55 seconds to go up 7-6.

Though disappointed with the day's final outcome, Monroe made a little school

history of his own as he - earlier in the day - became the second-fastest

Newtown High wrestler to reach 50 career wins. Monroe needed only 54 career

matches (not a misprint), only one more than 1983 NHS superstar Larry Miller,

to do it. Miller, incidentally, did it in 53 matches as a junior and senior.

Monroe qualified for State Opens with his second-place finish and will join

Henckel there on Saturday.

Though there have been many great wrestlers at Newtown High School over the

past several years, the last to win a state championship was heavyweight Kevin

Lee back in 1988. The only NHS wrestler to ever win at State Opens, meanwhile,

was Pete Meier back in 1976.

Newtown senior Kevin Lausten was hoping to cop a Class L crown in the

171-pound class, but was upset early on Saturday. The South-West Conference

champion in that class finished sixth in the tournament missing a chance to

wrestle State Opens. Lausten finished the season at 27-4 and ended his NHS

career among the school's all-time top 20 with 61 victories.

Newtown senior wrestlers Darryl Newman (160 lbs) and Brett Tannone (135 lbs)

placed fifth and sixth in Class L, respectively.

As a team, Newtown, who finished 19th among 20 teams in Class L last season,

this year placed eighth with 89 points. Simsbury won the Class L team title

with 177 points.