Avon junior Joe Murphy defeated Waterford's Matthew Tulba to win the championship for the 170-pound weight class in the Class M wrestling tournament Saturday.
"He is our first champion since 2009," Avon head wrestling coach John McLaughlin wrote in an e-mail to Patch.
The Avon High School varsity wrestling team placed 10th overall with 86.5 points after claiming the NCCC title the previous week, according to tournament results on casciac.org.
Teammate and senior captain Alex Heston earned second place in the 120-pound weight class, according to the CIAC results, and Bacon Academy wrestler Chris Elrod defeated him in the final.
Junior Dan Rodrigues placed sixth in the 160-pound weight class, losing the fifth place match to Dylan Robbins, of Fermi in Enfield.
Juniors Jessica McCamish (106) and Alberto Borstein (195) were both a win away from medaling in their weight classes at the Class M Championship, according to McLaughlin.
The win advances Murphy to State Opens next weekend at Hill House in New Haven. Heston and Rodrigues also have advanced to State Opens, McLaughlin said.
Photographer Joe Gaylor's photos of the Avon wrestlers in action are available on fjgaylor.com/2012classm.html, as well as his video of Murphy's championship match.
Editor's Note: E-mail photos of the tournament to Jessie.Sawyer@patch.com. If you think any corrections need to be made to this article, contact Avon Patch Editor Jessie Sawyer via e-mail or at 860-356-6339. Join in on the Avon Patch conversation on Facebook (www.facebook.com/AvonPatch) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/AvonPatch). You can also add your own announcements and events or apply to blog on Patch.
