Canton’s Carey takes sixth at Class S tournament

Canton’s Sam Beadle has Griswold’s James Miller on his back at the Class S tournament Saturday at Haddam-Killingworth. Beadle pinned Miller in 44 seconds.

CANTON – It’s been a challenging season for the Canton High wrestling team. Illness and injuries wreaked havoc all season long. The Warriors started out with 16 wrestlers and at the end there were just five wrestlers competing at the Class S tournament.

“It was a tough year with injuries,” head coach Josh Kaplan said .”Two guys broke their hands in the first few weeks of the season.” And it didn’t stop in February. Noah Korner, who finished third in the NCCC Tournament at 145 pounds suffered a concussion in practice the day before the Class S tournament began.

“We had a lot of young kids and kids who didn’t wrestle last year,” Kaplan said. “We tried to get them some experience and tried to minimize situations they were placed into.” The staff sent them to some junior varsity tournaments so they could get more time on the mat to develop.

Canton (3-14, 2-7 NCCC) had just five wrestlers at the Class S tournament and four one at least one match. Dakota Carey (20-15) finished sixth at 182 pounds to lead the Warriors to a 22nd place in the field of 33 teams.

Carey won his first bout with a pin before losing to eventual champion Paul LaRosa of Haddam-Killingworth, 20-15. But Carey won two consecutive bouts in the consolation round with a pin over Enfield’s Nate Chesworth and a 4-2 win over Derby’s Anthony Melendez to earn at least a top six finish and a trip to Friday’s State Open championship in New Haven.

Morgan’s Greg Lee beat Carey in the consolation semifinals, 7-2 and Montville’s Emanuel Diaz pinned Carey in 2:03 in the fifth place bout.

Julian Adams (17-13) won twice at 152 pounds with a pin over Morgan’s Eli Luchuk and Seymour’s Wesley Minalga. But Adams lost to Windham’s Cullan Contos by pin in the quarterfinals and was eliminated by pin in a loss to Weston’s Jackson Siff.

Jake Allmendinger (160) and Sam Beadle (195) each picked up a pin for the Warriors.

At the NCCC Tournament two weeks ago, Korner took third at 145 pounds with a 10-7 win over Coventry’s Avery Putnam. After losing his opening match to Putnam, 10-9, Korner won three straight in the consolation bracket including a rematch with Putnam.

John Graziano took third at 170 for Canton pinning Avon’s Blake Edwards in 2:07. Graziano, 3-1 in the tournament, wasn’t eligible to participate in the Class S tournament because he didn’t have enough matches this season. He missed several matches with illness and missed weight on another occasion.

Carey took fourth at 182 pounds along with Trey VandeBogart at 132 pounds. Both were 2-2 in the tournament.

Canton finished eighth in the field at the NCCC Tournament, which was won by Avon for the eighth consecutive year.

The Warriors did finish the dual meet campaign with a win. Thanks to four forfeits and key victories from Graziano and Brian Barger, Canton beat East Windsor, 36-24. Graziano beat Hunter Khadeim, 5-4 and Barger outlasted Colin Beahn, 6-2.

It’s been a while since Canton had such a rough season. The last time they won just three dual meets was 1990, when they were 3-11.

For more information on Canton’s 2015 campaign including boxscores and tournament results, go to Canton Wrestling Online.