44°
Jennings, a senior wrestling at 145 pounds, pinned his opponent in the first period and Danbury went on to a convincing 53-20 victory. Danbury (11-2) is the state’s top-ranked team. Fairfield Warde (15-2) came into the meet ranked No. 5 in the state.
“It’s always good to start the match off with a win or a pin,’’ junior co-captain Kevin Jack said. “It’s important to get off to a good start.”
Danbury won the first four matches to take a commanding 21-0 lead and ended up winning 10 of the 14 matches. Warde wrestled the league championship from Danbury in 2010 and is the only team in the last 27 years to win a league title other than the Hatters.
“I thought it would be 8-6 in matches, and we won 10,’’ Danbury coach Ricky Shook said. “Even the matches that we lost, I felt we wrestled well.”
Jennings gave Danbury a fast start with his pin of Phil Neomontis. “Shane had a bad weekend,’’ Shook said, referring to a loss to Mount Anthony of Vermont on Saturday. “He wasn’t feeling well. I said to him, ‘Are we getting the good Shane tonight? He said yes, I feel great.’ It was great to have him start off with a pin.”
Other Danbury wrestlers who pinned opponents included Haxhi Lajqi at 160, Juan Garcia at 170, Joey Peterson at 195, Tristan Jakobson at 220, Paulo Freitas at 106 and Chris Bryant at 112. Jack (120 pounds) and Zach Tepper (138) won major decisions. Ray Nunez (152) won a regular decision.
Danbury has the New Fairfield Duals on Saturday and Greenwich on Feb. 5 to finish the regular season. Danbury then tries to recapture the Class LL and State Open titles. The last time the Hatters won both in the same year was in 2010.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Danbury and receive free news updates.
