Five Amity wrestlers qualified for the CIAC State Open Championships held at the Floyd Little Athletic Center in New Haven on Friday, Feb. 23 and Saturday, Feb. 24. Captains Christian Chadwick, Matt Rothman & Sam Keylock along with Junior Justin Griffin and Sophomore Aiden Hebert prepared to test their mettle against the best wrestlers in the state.
Friday started off extremely well with Chadwick, Hebert & Keylock each winning their first-round bouts. The second round saw Chadwick, Hebert, and Keylock lose their second-round matches while Rothman & Griffin won their matches. The CT State Opens is a double elimination tournament so each wrestler is eliminated after their second loss.
Going into the State Open Tournament Christian Chadwick needed just two wins to become only the 14th wrestler in school history to reach 100. After winning his first match Christian lost to the eventual State Open Champion, Jared Kosman from Fitch High School, in the second round. So, with the pressure on Christian was able to pull off his 100th win in his first match of the consolation round. Aiden Hebert and Sam Keylock each wrestled tough eventually losing their consolation matches.
With their wins, Chadwick, Rothman, and Griffin advanced to day two of the tournament.
On Saturday Chadwick, Rothman & Griffin lost their next matches with Rothman losing to the eventual State Open Champion Ryan Luth from Foran High School. Justin Griffin was able to notch another win before losing a 5-1 decision to A. Daley from Morgan High School. Matt Rothman, on the other hand, caught fire rattling off four straight wins taking down the Class LL Champion K. Gjinaj from Fairfield Warde and the Class L Champion J. Marshall from Bristol Eastern on his way to a third-place finish in the 152 lbs. weight class. With his third-place finish, Matt Rothman qualifies for the New England High School Championships held in Providence Rhode Island on Friday, March 2 and Saturday, March 3.
Head Coach Ryan Roddy said “Coach Todd Patterson, Coach Nate Shilling and I are very happy with how tough the team wrestled this weekend. It was great to see Senior captains Christian Chadwick, Matt Rothman, Sam Keylock reach the CIAC State Open Championships to cap off the high school wrestling careers. It’s exciting to see Matt Rothman advance to the New England Championships and it’s very promising for the future of our program to see Sophomore Aiden Hebert and Junior Justin Griffin reach the Opens so early in their high school careers. The future of Amity Wrestling looks very bright.”
— By Chris Chadwick