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Sports

Montville 10th In State Wrestling Meet

Kurasz's 3rd at 160 Highlights Indian Showing

Only a couple of years ago, the Montville High wrestling team competed in the Class S state tournament. Coach Gary Wilcox wishes that were still the case.

You might argue that only moving up one division to Class M is not a major step. But if you take that tack, you don't know wrestling. As one of the smallest Class M schools, Montville faces an uphill battle in what is usually one of the most competitive classes, featuring the Eastern Connecticut Conference's best teams.

This year was no different as Bacon Academy, Ledyard and Windham went 1-2-3 to showcase the ECC's power. Montville finished 10th as a team despite suffering through a rash of sickness heading into the weekend tournament at Windham High.

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"It's a loaded field," Wilcox said. "On top of that, two kids missed the tournament with sickness, and three kids wrestled sick. We would have liked to place more kids, and three just missed the top five, but overall we did pretty good."

Junior Dan Kurasz, ailing from a fever, highlighted the Indian effort with a third place at 160. He lost 4-2 to Ledyard's Alex Manwaring in the semifinals, but came back to win the wrestleback consolations and place No. 3.

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"Bad timing for a fever," Kurasz said. "Manwaring is very good defensively. I was hoping to get to the finals, but this was nice."

Dayvon Wynn finished fourth at 135 pounds, reaching the semifinals before losing. Ryan Murtha was fifth at 275 pounds.

"Ryan lost in an early round but did a nice job coming back," Wilcox said. "He's a young heavyweight as a sophomore, so I'm pleased with him."

Montville finished 19-7 in the regular season, placing third in the ECC Small Division behind Griswold, which won the Class S title, and Windham, third in Class M.

 

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