Greenwich High wrestling team more than ready for FCIAC's best

Written by Paul Silverfarb
Thursday, 09 February 2012 04:09

With the team’s brutal regular season now in the rear-view mirror, the Greenwich High School wrestling team is focusing on this weekend’s Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference tournament.

“We are relatively a young team in terms of experience,” Albano said. “I think going into the tournament, maybe four or five guys have wrestled in this tournament before, never mind medaling. It’s going to be a new experience for a bunch of kids. I don’t think the bar is any lower than any other year. We’re going to try and place as many kids as we can. Last year we placed around 10 and that’s a lofty goal, but it’s definitely obtainable. We have a lot of guys that are right on the fringe. It will depend on how they show up, but I think they are prepared and are ready to go after their goals. It’s all about putting it together.”

This year’s Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference tournament, hosted once again by New Canaan High School, will officially get underway tomorrow at 3, when athletes step on the scale for weigh-ins. Only 90 minutes, Greenwich will take the mat and compete in the round of 16. Immediately following the conclusion of the first round will be the quarterfinal round.

Any Greenwich grapplers that advance from tomorrow’s matches have short rest, as they wake up bright and early on Saturday for the semifinal and consolation quarterfinals round that gets underway at 10. After the conclusion of that round, it’s on to the consolation semifinals.

After roughly a two-hour break, the third and fourth place grapplers will square off, as well as the fifth and sixth place athletes, will take to the mat and battle for placing.

Starting at 4, the championship finals will take place under the lights in the New Canaan gym.

“I think any time you get a top five finish in the FCIAC, that’s a real accomplishment,” Albano said. “This is one of the top conferences in the state. If we could hang around and place a couple of kids in the finals and place a lot of kids in the wrestlebacks, we’ll get the points to get in contention for one of the top spots.”

Last year Big Red had quite the ride. The team finished second overall, beating out Fairfield Warde High School and falling only to perennial powers Danbury High School. In the championship finals, Greenwich had four grapplers competing, with Johnny D’Ella (119) and Ben Ceci (189) winning FCIAC gold. Joe McGuire (215) and Jay Cummiskey (152) each were FCIAC runner-ups.

What made the Cards so successful was its ability to place a plethora of wrestlers on medal podium.

Mark Chien (103) and Cameron Driscoll (140) finished in third place, while Matt Diddel (130) scored a fourth place finish. John Waddell (119), Matt Gray (135) and Ryan Whittle each finished fifth in the tournament.

“Last year we wrestled back tremendously,” Albano said. “We had four kids in the finals, but out of the other six kids that placed, five of them won their consolation match. That made the difference and hopefully that’s going to be the difference again this year. I think we are mentally prepared and know it’s going to be a tough two days.”

Senior captains Diddel and Whittle have been on the varsity team since sophomore year and understand how grueling the FCIAC tournament is, whether it’s knowing the gym, knowing where to weigh-in or knowing that you win Friday, go to sleep and wake up early for another day of competition on Saturday.

During this year’s regular season, Whittle, who is wrestling in the 170-pound weight class, is sitting at an impressive 27-2 overall, while Diddel is 18-5 on the season.

“He’s almost a guaranteed victory every time out there and it’s great to have someone like that on the team,” Albano said. “The kids look up to him and he’s a leader on the mat. The kids see how successful he is and it’s because of how hard he works. Matt had a couple of setbacks with injuries earlier this year, but he’s back and better than ever. Matt is probably the most technical wrestler we have. He comes from a wrestling family and is a strong wrestler on top, however he’s also improved a lot this year on his feet. With those two kids being good, strong leaders for the younger kids on the team, I couldn’t be happier. They have been unbelievable captains. They’ve led us all year and we’re looking for that for the next two weekends.”

Another wrestler back from last year’s team is Driscoll, who is looking to improve from last year’s third place finish.

“He’s a kid who knows what it’s like to compete at that high level and I think he’s excited to go,” Albano said.

Albano said he’s hoping for big things from 113-pounder Alex Jarombek. With a mark of 24-7, he has the second best record on Big Red during the regular season.

“As a freshman he’s very composed and even the young kids look at his wrestling skills and take notice,” Albano said. “He brings a calm to the team. Win or lose, he always has a positive attitude and does his best every time out there. He was successful at the middle school level and it’s great to see how he’s embraced this big stage. He’s a varsity wrestler for a proud program like Greenwich and he’s been unbelievable.”

Newcomer to the heavyweight division, Graham Perry has taken the weight class by storm the second half of the year and will be looking to place at FCIACs.

“At the beginning of the year a kid from Wilton pinned him and he was able to get the better of him at the Ridgefield Challenge,” Albano said. “It shows how much he’s improved. He’s going into FCIACs looking to avenge a few losses he had earlier in the year and I think he could win the actually weight class at FCIACs. He’s confident and ready to go.”

Brian Cronin at the 182-pound weight class and Grant Cucchisi at 195 will be two juniors Albano is hoping will place at FCIACs.

“They both have similar wrestling styles and both practice with each other every day,” Albano said. “They are both hard working and work the entire match. When it comes to experience, they might not be with the top guys in the state, but they are tough kids and make each other better.”

The Cardinals have been gearing up for the postseason run throughout the season. The team’s overall record might not be a pristine as other teams in the state, however when looking at the quality of opponents Big Red faced, it’s easy to see why.

In dual or tri meets, Greenwich has squared off against top conference teams like Fairfield Warde, Trumbull High, Danbury and Westhill high schools. During weekends, Big Red has squared off in tournaments against some of the top teams in the state like Xavier, Foran, Farmington, Norwich Free Academy and even have battled cross-town rival Brunswick School.

“There’s a reason we scheduled those teams,” Albano said. “It’s hard to get the kids to understand that we want the kids to wrestle those matches. We use those teams as a barometer to see where we stand and what you need to work on.. We started off the year 5-5 and four of those losses were against top 10 teams in the state. We ended up finishing the regular season 14-8 and won nine of our last 12 matches. Once we wrestled teams that were a little closer to our level, we were excelling in those matches.”

While the teams Greenwich has faced this season is nothing short of impressive, Albano is curious to see how his team performs at such a demanding tournament like the two-day FCIAC tournament.

Throughout the season, Greenwich competed in dual and tri meets on Wednesdays. On Saturdays, Big Red traveled to day-long tournaments throughout the state.

“That routine is tough to get into,” Albano said. “We haven’t competed in a two-day tournament all year, so it’ll be interesting how the young kids respond. We competed in tournaments, so that prepares you for having multiple matches, but there’s nothing that simulates that two-day FCIAC tournament. You go at it Friday night and get right back at in Saturday morning. We have a resilient group of young kids that are hard-working. The progress that we made has been tremendous.”

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