Printer Friendly Version - Guilford Wrestling Places 3rd in Class M; Bloss Takes 2nd in 3,200 at State Open

Vin Mascola was one of three second-place finishers for the Guilford wrestling team at the Class M State Championship last weekend. The Indians, who hosted the meet, finished in third place as a team. Photo by Kelley Fryer/The Courier

The Guilford wrestling team finished in third place as a squad by totaling 140 points when it hosted the Class M State Championship on Feb. 16 and 17. Keldon LaRose finished second in the 126-pound weight class, while Vin Mascola placed second at 138, and Charlie Andrus was the runner-up in the 182 division for the Indians.

LaRose lost a 17-1 decision against Ellis Tech’s Sean Johnson in the 126-pound final. To get there, he defeated Law’s Alex Delorio (by pin at 1:26), Jordan Lang of Foran (pin at 1:38), and Cooper Morrisette of Killingly (pin at 1:35). Mascola was pinned 57 seconds into his final versus Tolland’s Ryan Angers. On the way to his championship bout, he bested Luis Santibanez of Platt (pin at 0:33), Foran’s Ethan Edmondson (18-3), and Zavier Powell of Middletown (13-3). Andrus lost his final to Ben Stratton of Platt by a 9-1 decision. Along the way, he defeated Shayne Ortiz of Barlow (by pin at 2:42), Branford’s David Osler (pin at 3:31), and Zach Caffrey of Killingly (7-5 decision).

Additionally for the Indians, Tanner Small finished fifth in the 285-pound weight class, and Carter Cox placed sixth at 152. Also grappling for Guilford at states were Mohammad Halabi (106), Kyle Putnam (113), Anthony Bombgardner (120), George Sanderlin (132), Joe Santino (145), Christion Swan (160), Dylan Hegedus (170), Mark Chapman (195), and Vin Masotti (220).

Meredith Bloss and Jacqui Guerra combined to score nine points for the Indians and put them in 20th place at the State Open Championship at Floyd Little Athletic Center on Feb. 17.

Bloss finished as the runner-up in the 3,200 with a time of 11:08.05, and Guerra posted a mark of 3:05.39 to take sixth place in the 1,000 at the Open. Elsewhere, Guilford’s 4x800 relay of Elissa Strand, Kelsi Putnam, Gianna Siciliano, and Chloe Shaw came in 16th place with a mark of 10:17.63.

Guilford was represented by a pair of athletes at last week’s State Open Championship.

Will Smith finished 10th in the 600-meter run at 1:26.48, while Corey Sondak finished 11th in the preliminaries of the 55-meter dash with a time of 6.75 seconds for the Indians.

The Indians improved its overall record to 14-3 after netting a pair of victories last week.

Guilford trounced Trinity Catholic 10-1 on Feb. 13, before edging North Haven 4-3 in OT on Feb. 17. In the North Haven game, the Indians trailed 3-0 in the second period, but then stormed back by scoring three goals in the frame to tie up. John DeLucia scored his second goal of the game to win it at the 7:21 mark of the extra session, while Jack Ring and Jack Dacey also found the back of the net for the Indians.

Guilford finished its campaign with a record of 7-12 after posting a one-goal win in its season finale last week.

The Indians took a 2-1 loss to Notre Dame-Fairfield/Law/Foran/Weston on Feb. 14. However, Guilford ended the year on a positive note by posting a 6-5 win over Trumbull-St. Joseph on Feb. 17.

Guilford wrapped up its regular season with a record of 11-9, before taking a first-round defeat in the SCC Tournament last week. The Indians now look ahead to the Class L State Tournament that gets underway on Tuesday, Feb. 27.

The Indians took a 75-60 loss to Hand on Feb. 12 and then dropped a 42-35 decision against Amity in its regular-season finale the following day. As the No. 11 seed in the SCC Tournament, the Indians opened the bracket with a first-round game versus No. 6 seed Cross and took a 56-28 defeat on Feb. 15.

Hand jumped out to a 42-20 lead at the half in its victory versus Guilford. Amanda King scored 13 points in the third quarter as Guilford outscored the Tigers 27-15 to cut the margin to 57-47, but Hand hung on in the fourth to close out the victory. King paced Guilford with 21 points, Janie Danaher added nine points, and Elle Petra chipped in eight points.

The Amity contest served as Guilford’s Senior Night, on which the Indians honored their six seniors: captain Julia Hyman, Jordan Hedge, King, Molly Linell, Hannah McDermott, and Emma Rand. The Indians got out to a great start as Rand hit a short jumper and then made a beautiful reverse layup to put the home team up 10-0. However, Amity regrouped and rallied to tie the game at 13. Guilford clung to a 26-25 lead at intermission, but the Indians’ shooting struggles in the second half allowed the Spartans to pull away in the closing minutes.

In the SCC Tournament, Guilford trailed 21-17 with less than two minutes left in the first half, but Cross closed out the half on a 9-0 run to lead 30-17 at the break. The Governors continued their strategy of pounding the ball inside to their bigger players to get to the foul line, and wound up getting 28 free-throw attempts to Guilford’s six on its way to the victory.

Olivia Ciocca competed for the Indians when Hand had a meet against Mercy, Haddam-Killingworth/Hale-Ray/Morgan, and Valley Regional on Feb. 13. Ciocca totaled an all-around score of 32.05 by scoring an 8.0 on vault, a 7.5 on bars, an 8.15 on beam, and an 8.1 on floor on behalf of Guilford.