Brunswick School’s wrestling team added another impressive accomplishment to its resume this season, finishing second in the team standings at the highly competitive 2025 WNEISWA East Championships at Pomfret School recently.

The Bruins totaled a team score of 233.5 points in the eight-team tournament. Greens Farms Academy from Westport captured the WNEISWA team championship, amassing 310 points. Hopkins School placed third (147.5 points), Avon Old Farms School finished fourth (127.7 points), and host Pomfret was fifth (81). Greenwich Country Day School finished sixth in the team standings with 71 points. Suffield Academy (51) and Hamden Hall Country Day School (35) were seventh and eighth, respectively.

Junior co-captain Jack Degl helped lead the Bruins to their strong second place finish at the WNEISWA Championships. Degl won the tournament’s 165-pound weight class and also earned the Ray Sparks Trophy, which has been presented each year since 1958 to the tournament’s most outstanding wrestler as voted by the coaches.

Each school can bring a maximum of fourteen wrestlers to the WNEISWA tournament. All 14 Brunswick wrestlers entered in this year’s tournament placed in the top four at their respective weight classes.

Head coach Tim Ostrye has had a winner of the Ray Sparks trophy in each of the last five decades (1987 Jamie Butler 155 lb., 1997 Justin Weinstein 135 lb., 2007 Chasen Van Lang 103 lb., 2016 Jon Errico 145 lb.). After pinning wrestlers from Pomfret and Greens Farms Academy in the 165-pound weight class quarterfinals and semifinals, Degl earned a 16-3 major decision over his opponent from Suffield in the finals, improving his record to 30-3 on the season.

Five Brunswick wrestlers posted second-place finishes at the WNEISWA Championships. Sophomore Owen Bartoszek earned a second-place finish in the 126-pound weight class, while Marco Sethi, also a sophomore was second in the 144-pound division for the Bruins.

Senior Emil Sogaard-Srikrishnan took second for Brunswick in the 175-pound class and junior Bruins teammate Nikki Krause placed second in the 190-pound class. In the 215-pound weight class, Brunswick senior Declan Murray was second.

In the 113-pound bracket at the WNEISWA Championships, eighth grader Charlie Alexandrou was third for Brunswick. Patrick O’Donahue had a third-place finish in the 138-pound division and junior Alec Harned finished third in the 157-pound class for the Bruins. Jake Greene (190-pound) and Michael Marini (285-pound) both juniors, registered third-place finishes for Brunswick.

Eighth grader Paul Kesmodal (106-pound weight class), sophomore Judah Viders (132-pound) and senior Will O’Reilly (175-pound) each finished fourth in their respective divisions for the Bruins.

This year’s eight-team WNEISWA (East) tournament (the league was split into two smaller tournaments this year) is one of five qualifiers for the 2025 New England Preparatory School Wrestling Association (NEPSWA) Championships, which was held at Phillips Exeter Academy yesterday (Feb. 14) and today (Feb. 15). Wrestlers finishing in the top three at their respective weight classes at the WNEISWA (East) tournament earned qualification to the NEPSWA tournament.