Tyler Bishop Champ at CIAC Class LL Tourney, Amity Wrestlers Finish in 12th place

Amity’s Tyler Bishop defeated Chris Chapparo from Westhill High of Stamford 10-2 to win the CIAC Class LL 130 pound wrestling championship Saturday at Trumbull High School.

During the regular season, Chaparro had twice defeated Bishop. With this victory Bishop (who went into the LL tourney seeded No. 4)  not only avenged those two losses, he also takes his Class LL championship and his 29-8 record on to the State Open on Friday at the New Haven Athletic Center.

According to Spartan coach Gil Jennings, “Tyler went right after Chaparro, took him down twice early in the contest and wrestled a flawless match. He was relentless, broke the kid down and won an easy major decision. Chaparro was the No. 2 seed. Earlier in the tournament, Tyler defeated the No. 1 seed 9-3.”

He added, “Somehow, Tyler hears what we tell him from the sidelines during his matches and he follows what we tell him to do. He knew had made mistakes against Chaparro the first two times he wrestled him and was determined not to do that again.”

A.J. Pyne took fourth place at 145 pounds. After knocking off the No. 3 seed, Pyne lost in the quarter-finals. He battled his way back through two consolation round matches but them lost to Bryan Polonia by default in the Consolation Finals.

“A.J. missed most of the season with a shoulder injury and had wrestled only 8 matches prior to the Class LL Championship tournament. His shoulder was bothering after his fourth match of the day. I didn’t want to worry about the shoulder next week at the State Open. I want him prime and ready to go, so I had him default in his last match for third place.”

Pyne heads into the State Open with a 9-3 record.

Spartan senior Dave Nudel took sixth place at 140.

As a team, Amity placed 12th (out of 27 teams) with 85.5 points.

Xavier, the recently crowned Southern Connecticut Conference champs, snapped Danbury’s 14 year hammer lock on the Class LL title as it outpointed the Hatters 200-160.

Shelton’s Pat Gillen successfully defended his 215 pound title by pinning Staples’ Chris Guinta in a mere 57 seconds of their Finals match. Gillen (who was chosen as the tournament’s Most Outstanding Wrestler) has now recorded 189 scholastic wins. He is the current State Open and New England champ at 215 pounds.