Jimmy Murphy 2nd at State Open; Joe Murphy, Rodrigues win medals

Jimmy Murphy works for a pin earlier this year against Terryville.

NEW HAVEN, Feb. 23 – Avon High fans been watching Jimmy Murphy for the past three years play football with reckless abandon. It earned the linebacker All-State recognition this past fall.

But it was football that cost Murphy an opportunity to wrestle the past two years. He had a concussion after his freshman year and broke his hand in the final game of the regular season when he was a sophomore.

It was no surprise to see Murphy succeed this season once he finally hit the mat, going 31-2 in the regular season with his usual aggressiveness and speed. “His explosive speed is impressive,” Canton High coach Josh Kaplan said.

Murphy won a Class M championship at 145 pounds and advanced to the finals of the State Open where he faced South Windsor’s undefeated Casey Mitchell, an experienced senior who won a State Open title when he was a sophomore in 2011.

And true to form, Murphy used his aggressive speed to grab a quick 2-0 lead with a takedown 20 seconds into the match. Mitchell tied the match at 3-3 with a sharp takedown of his own with 31 seconds left in the second period but Murphy didn’t let it stand, escaping with three seconds left to take a 4-3 lead into the third period.

Mitchell escaped to begin the third period to tie the match at 4-4 and got the match-winning double leg takedown with 14 seconds left in regulation to earn a hard-fought 6-4 decision.

Murphy was one of three medal winners for Avon at the State Open meet. His brother, Joe Murphy was fourth at 170 pounds while senior Dan Rodrigues finished fifth at 182 pounds to help Avon finish 15th in the field of over 90 teams.

It wasn’t the ending that Jimmy Murphy (38-3) was looking for but he remembered how far he has progressed as a wrestler. He hasn’t wrestled competitively since he was in sixth grade.

“You can’t complain,” he said. “I gave it my heart. I couldn’t have done anything without my family or my brother (Joe). It was my first year back. I’ll take it like a man.”

Avon High coach John McLaughlin said, “He is so aggressive. He doesn’t do anything slow. Everything he throws and hits is at 100 percent and it has served him well (on the mat). He might have overwhelmed Mitchell a bit (early in the match).”

It has been a tough few weeks for the Murphy family. Jimmy and Joe’s grandmother passed away just before the Class M tournament. With heavy hearts, Jimmy and Joe (170 pounds) won Class M titles. For Joe, it was his second straight Class M championship.

Avon’s Joe Murphy

Joe also wrestled at the State Open in a very competitive weight class at 170 pounds. The top three finishers from last year’s State Open each returned, including Joe, who was second at year ago to Newington’s Chris Chorzepa.

Joe won his first match by pin and beat Fairfield Warde’s Thomas Avenia, 8-1 in the quarterfinals. However, in the semifinals, Joe ran into a buzzsaw. Xavier’s Elliot Antler had four takedowns before pinning Joe in the semifinals.

Antler went on to win the tournament, upsetting Chorzepa in the championship round and being named the outstanding wrestler in the tournament.

Joe pinned Middletown’s Dante Futia in 49 seconds to earn a spot in the consolation final and a bid to the New England tournament for the second year in a row. Windham’s Devyn Pesta caught Joe in a move and won by pin to finish third.

The New England tournament will be Friday and Saturday in Providence. The top four wrestlers from each individual weight class qualify from Connecticut. Both Murphy brothers will pass on the tournament this year. But they alerted tournament officials Saturday to give other state wrestlers the opportunity to participate.

Rodrigues (34-12) wrestled well to get to the semifinals with a 7-2 win over Alexander Mardis of Oxford and a 9-5 win over Manchester’s Brian Donovan in double OT. Rodrigues

But he lost to eventual champion Jimmy McDunnah of Wethersfield in the semifinals.

“Dan was on fire in the second half of the season,” McLaughlin said. “There has been so much improvement from the first half of the year.” Rodrigues, who plays football, too, spends the early weeks of the season getting down to 182 pounds. And working out every day with Joe Murphy as a practice partner doesn’t hurt, either.

Rodrigues finished second at 182 in last week’s Class M tournament, dropping a 7-2 decision to Ledyard’s Colin Grim, who beat McDunnah, 5-3 to win the State Open title.

Avon finished fourth in the Class M tournament with the Murphy brothers winning state titles and Rodrigues finishing second. C.J. Delgrosse was sixth at 160 pounds. It was Avon’s best finish since taking second in the Class S tournament in 2006.

Jimmy Murphy outlasted Berlin’s Jake Eliades, 7-5 to win while Joe Murphy pinned Ryan Wade of Ledyard in 1:38 for his Class M crown. The Murphy brothers became just the ninth pair of brothers in state history to state titles in the same year.