This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.

Iamunno Places 2nd at State Open

Joe Iamunno finished in second place for the 120-pound weight class when he competed among Connecticut’s best wrestlers at the State Open Championship last week. Iamunno, a freshman at North Haven High School, won three bouts in the 120-pound division to advance to the championship match, where he lost to junior Drew Currier of Hall by a 5-0 decision. With his second-place performance, Iamunno advanced to represent North Haven at the New England Championship in Massachusetts this weekend.

Iamunno entered the State Open on the heels of taking the 120-pound title at both the SCC Championship and the Class L State Championship. As the No. 3 seed in the Open, he earned a bye into the round-of-16 when the meet got underway at Floyd Little Athletic Center on Feb. 28. Iamunno started off by pinning No. 14 seed Tyler Arsenault of Griswold at the 1:12 mark of their bout. Then in the quarterfinals, Iamunno pinned No. 6 seed Carlos DeWinter of Griswold at the 3:37 mark to move on to the semifinal round.

The following day, Iamunno took on No. 2 seed Dylan Levesque in a semifinal showdown. Iamunno defeated Levesque via an 8-3 decision to advance to the championship match. Iamunno went up against top-seeded Currier in the final and lost a 5-0 decision to finish second for the 120-pound bracket.

Representing North Haven as a team-of-one, Iamunno scored 23.5 points to put the Indians in 36th place out of the 95 schools that had athletes compete at the State Open. Iamunno will wrestle at the New England Championship that’s taking place at Methuen High School in Methuen, Massachusetts on Saturday, March 7 and Sunday, March 8.

One week before the State Open, Iamunno claimed first place in the 120-pound division at the Class L State Championship after winning four bouts on pinfalls during the tournament. Iamunno took the gold by pinning Mason Lishness of Bristol Eastern just 40 seconds into their title bout.

Prior to that, Iamunno won three bouts on his way to placing first at the SCC Championship. In the final, Iamunno defeated Colin Loria from Xavier on a technical fall after taking a 15-0 lead 4:54 into the match.