Montville coach Gary Wilcox came over to me after the Class M state wrestling championships were over with a large smile on his face.
"So what do you think about the ECC now", Wilcox laughed.
I have to agree.
The conference looked more than good in one of the toughest classes in the CIAC as they took five out of the top six slots and had Platt not snuck past Killingly late, it would have taken all five top spots.
The Ledyard Colonels, of course, lined up smart and wrestled smart. They moved Matt Baker up to 152 from 145 and he brought home a state title. T.J. Hepburn was T.J. Hepburn and that's all you need to know at 140. Julian Hightower walked away with a title at 189 and both C.J.Satti and Nick Morales finished as runners up.
Windham, the defending champs, gave up their title to the Colonels thanks to a tough semifinal round but still finished second with Jon Torres and Addison Fleming coming out winners.
Montville wrestlers gave cause for Wilcox's glow afterwards as Josh Go captured a 125 crown and Pat Ryan was best at 135, Nick Perry gave it a run at 103 and finished second as Montville placed third as a team.
Bacon had to move up a class from last year but didn't waver as they finished fourth overall and had two champs of their own in Sean Burgess at 171 and Matt Chalmers at 285.
All of these wrestlers had a story to tell and you're going to be able to read some of those stories in the Norwich Bulletin and Bulletin online Tuesday. Look for that and our high school basketball notebooks which will be out tomorrow.