By David Fierro
The Brunswick Invitational Wrestling Tournament is an event Greenwich High School looks forward to competing in every year, because the Cardinals’ wrestlers know they will, indeed, be tested to the limit.
“It’s a great tournament, it’s well run, there’s really good teams – GFA is one of the top prep schools in the country – Brunswick is super competitive, so there is a lot of good wrestling going on,” Greenwich High wrestling coach Jere Petersen said at Saturday’s Brunswick Invitational. “It’s been a good learning experience for the young guys – a lot of really good exposure to good wrestlers.”
Behind sophomore Colin Falla and freshman Cody Griesmeyer’s second-place finishes in their respective weight classes, Greenwich finished a solid fourth in the team standings at Saturday’s 11-team, 49th annual Brunswick Invitational Wrestling Tournament.
Greens Farms Academy finished atop the team standings at the Brunswick Invitational, compiling 514 team points. Trinity Pawling School was the runner-up with a team score of 252.5 points, while host Brunswick was third (252 points). Greenwich finished fourth in the team standings with a score of 154 points, followed by Hopkins School (110). Greenwich Country Day School placed eighth (62.5 points).
Seeded second, Falla received a first-round bye in the 217-pound weight class bracket. His first win came against his opponent from Hopkins School in the quarterfinals. Falla won by pinfall in the quarterfinals in 59 seconds. In the semifinals, defeated AJ Turner from Trinity Pawling by pinfall in 1:18. He was leading the match, 2-0, prior to pinning his foe.
In the 217-pound final, Dominic Iaquinto of Greens Farms Academy was victorious against Falla, posting a pin in 1:21.
“This is one of my favorite tournaments to go to,” Falla said. “Last year, I took sixth place, so I wanted to come in and put up a better performance. Being a young guy making it to the finals for the first time was a good experience for me.”
Said Petersen: “Falla has racked up about a dozen wins and only three losses. It’s been a good season so far.”
Falla executed well in each of his matches at the competitive BIT.
“I thought I was moving really well,” Falla said. “I want to try to get better with shots off of set ups, but all in all I thought I had good performances.”
Griesmeyer placed second in the 101-pound weight class for Greenwich. The 101-pound title went to Kelly Corson of Greenwich Country Day School.
Freshman Ryder Caruso earned a third-place finish for GHS in the 115-pound bracket at the BIT. Caruso pinned his Hopkins opponent in 4:00 in the quarterfinals, after leading 13-9. In the semifinals, he was defeated by Niall Glynn of Greens Farms Academy. Caruso was victorious in the third-place match against Marco Dias of Hopkins, pinning him in 4:14.
Senior co-captain Thomas Andruss registered a fifth-place finish in the 152-pound weight division. Andruss pinned John Crocker of Wilbraham & Monson Academy in the 152-pound fifth-place match in 2:28. He was leading, 6-3, prior to the pin.
“I just wanted to have a good end to the day,” Andruss said of his fifth-place match. “The competition was pretty good. I wanted to stay in control and control the pace of the match – not letting the nerves and anxiety get to me – it was good. I made a couple of mistakes, but obviously, we’ll work on it.”
Junior co-captain Anthony Panarella finished fifth in the 128-pound class for the Cardinals.
“It was hard-fought, he was a strong kid,” Panarella said of his fifth-place match victory. “Coming off of a loss the match before, I went in there really eager to win and I thought I executed well.”
Panarella won his first two matches of the tournament, before losing to his Greens Farms foe in the semifinals.
“To start off the day, I had a really hard match, which I won in triple overtime,” Panarella noted. “My second match I also won, which sent me to the semifinals. The semifinals I got tech. falled, it was a tough match. After that, I wrestled the kid I wrestled in the first match again and he ended up beating me, 1-0, and I just kept my head up and kept wrestling.”
Battling through injuries, Cardinals junior Kevin Barrios Espana earned a fifth-place showing in the 134-pound division at the BIT.
“In the beginning of the tournament, I came out strong with a really good match,” Barrios Espana said. “The second match, I injured my shoulder, that caused me to wrestle worse. Overall, I think it was good, this is the highest I’ve ever been in a tournament.”
“I’ve been through two injuries in three years of wrestling, but getting top-five in a tournament is good,” Barrios Espana continued. “I’ll work in the room, practice harder, conditioning harder.”
Anthony Pereira, Alex Neitzell and Mark Zolotarensky each registered fifth-place finishes in their respective weight classes for the Cards.
Pereira, a senior, won his 177-pound fifth-place match against David Lee from Northfield Mount Hermon by pinfall in 4:05. At the time of his pinfall victory, Pereira held an 8-3 advantage on Lee.
Neitzell earned a 9-4 decision over James Simonsen of Northfield Mount Hermon in the 167-pound match for fifth place. Also for Greenwich at the Brunswick Invitational, Declan O’Regan, a senior, was sixth in the 146-pound division and senior Rylan Alves was sixth in the 159-pound class.
“It’s been a good learning experience for the young guys,” Petersen said of his squad competing in events such as the Brunswick Invitational. “There has been a lot of really good exposure to our young wrestlers.”
“I like this tournament a lot every year and I think it prepares me for FCIACs,” Panarella added.
Andruss reflected on Greenwich’s overall performance at the Brunswick Invitational and his senior season with the Cardinals.
“It has been a great day for myself and the team,” Andruss said. “It’s a great tournament with really good competition. There are nationally-ranked preparatory schools and it’s a great way to work into the postseason tournaments. It’s also a great experience for us. We’re in Greenwich, it’s our hometown, we get to represent our school, our family – it’s a great experience.”
For Andruss, wrestling at the Brunswick Invitational continued a family tradition.
“My cousins used to wrestle at Brunswick and as a kid, I used to go to this tournament and watch my cousins wrestle,” Andruss said. “The fact that I get to represent GHS and wrestle at this tournament is a really good experience.”
