Simsbury’s Max Konopka, Avon’s Elijah Fagin bring home state titles

Avon’s Elijah Fagin (138) won his first state championship on Saturday at the Class M championship meet.

Simsbury sophomore Max Konopka and Avon senior Elijah Fagin brought home state championship wrestling trophies Saturday at their respective CIAC championship meets. Simsbury finished fourth in Class L with Avon grabbing fourth at the Class M meet.

Konopka (19-0) won his second straight Class L championship with a pin over East Lyme/Windham Tech’s Brayden Soleau while Fagin won his first championship with a 12-9 win over Guilford’s Elijah McDermott.

Canton finished ninth in Class S with two finalists – Nick Leadbetter (132) and Carter Chambers (157). Granby was 16th in Class S with one medalist while Lewis Mills’ one-person team of Jack Gedney finished 26th as Gedney captured his third consecutive Class S title.

The top six wrestlers in each weight class advance to Friday’s State Open championships at the Floyd Little Athletic Center in New Haven.

Another state title for Konopka
Konopka had three pins and a technical fall in the tournament as Simsbury finished fourth in Class L behind five-time state champion Xavier, Newtown and East Lyme/Norwich Tech. The Trojans had six medalists that finished in the top six of their respective weight classes.

Simsbury’s Coleman Finn (138, 24-8) finished second at 138 pounds after a 5-3 loss to Bristol Central’s Alex Lamarre in the championship match. Lamarre got an escape with 47 seconds left in the match to tie it, 2-2. He got a takedown with 10 seconds left in the match to take the lead for good.

Lamarre also got a last-second takedown to beat Bunnell’s Cayden Morin in the semifinals, 4-3.

Simsbury’s Ethan Quinn (113, 28-6) finished third at 113 pounds with a 4-1 record and four pins. Quinn lost in the semifinals to eventual champion Bradley Ament of Xavier but won his final two bouts to take third.

Trojan teammate Giulianno Sirianni (132, 23-6) also finished third with four pins in the tournament. Mick Granger (126) finished fourth and Moses Olea-Sulivan (106) was sixth.

Fagin wins championship for Avon
Fagin (36-2) was making his second appearance in the Class M finals at 138 pounds. He finished second a year ago and two years ago, he was fourth as a sophomore.

He marched into the championship match with two pins and a technical fall. Thanks to a pair of takedowns, Fagin had an 8-4 lead over Guilford’s Elijah McDermott (31-5). An escape by McDermott cut the lead to three, 8-5 but Fagin got another takedown to extend the lead to 11-5.

It was Avon’s sixth title of the decade and the first since Isaiah Adams (113), Jonah Weber (145) and Roel Johnson (160) all won in 2023 when the Falcons won their last state championship.

Maxwell Janes (215, 30-14) finished third at 215 pounds with four victories and four pins.

John Murphy (157, Mason Beecher (120) and Aki Bhabad (132) each finished fourth with Charles May (150) taking sixth.

Avon, which beat RHAM for the Class M championship in 2023 by a half-point, took fourth behind a balanced Foran-Milford squad that won their first championship since 2019. The Lions had nine medalists, two finalists and one individual champion.

Foran won the meet with 203½ points, followed by Bristol Eastern (185), Berlin (175) and the Falcons (154½).

Two finalists for the Warriors
Canton, who finished ninth, had Nick Leadbetter (132) and Carter Chambers (157) in the finals at the Class S championships in Killingly.

Leadbetter (33-11) got two takedowns in a 7-1 win over Ledyard’s Collin Rhode in the quarterfinals and got a takedown with nine seconds remaining in the second period and held on for a 4-3 win over Killingly’s Max Richards in the semifinals.

In the final, top seeded Harrison Accorsi (33-1) of Somers had a 9-2 lead with three takedowns before pinning Leadbetter in the third period for his first state championship.

At 157 pounds, Chambers (33-11) advanced to his first Class S final with two pins and a 19-8 win over Ledyard’s Braxton Swanbeck in the semifinals.

St. Joseph’s Michael Maroney, the top seed, had a more challenging route to the final. Maroney got a takedown with four seconds left in the third period to beat Waterford’s Adam Balfour, 11-10, in the quarterfinals.

In the semifinal, Maroney (28-8) prevailed with a 14-13 win in overtime over Plainville’s Josue Lamb Alvarado.

In the final, Maroney led 7-0 early thanks to a takedown and a four-point nearfall. Chambers got a reversal and two-point near fall to cut the lead to 7-4. But that is as close as Chambers would get as Maroney secured a third period pin to win the title.

Landon Dacruz (106) and Jose Rivera (106) were fifth for the Warriors with George Redford (138) finishing sixth.

Gedney wins third straight championship
Lewis Mills junior Jack Gedney (126, 11-1) won his third straight Class S championship with a 9-4 win over Windham’s Delmazio Despard.

Gedney, the only wrestler from his school, trains with Simsbury and was the No. 8 seed. Gedney beat top-seeded Seth Christie of Griswold/Wheeler in the quarterfinals with a pin and blanked Ledyard’s Joseph Crader in the semifinals, 5-0.

Somers’ William Accorsi (113) won his second straight Class S title with a technical fall win over Killingly’s Ronald Wood IV while his brother, Harrison also picked up a championship.

The Accorsi brothers are the 21st set of brothers to win a state title on the same day and the first pair to achieve the feat in Class S since Gilbert’s Devin Matthews and Kyle Matthews won titles together in 2020.