"I wanted it to drag on, I wanted to put on a show," the Bobcats heavyweight said with a laugh.

His teammates were more than happy that Kniska beat Lyman/Windham Tech's Darick Orange in two minutes, 40 seconds. His pin put the Bobcats ahead to stay in the Eastern Connecticut Conference wrestling championship at Fitch High School, which Bacon won with 233 points to Ledyard's 2241⁄2. Small Division champion Windham placed third.

The win gave the No. 4 Bobcats their third straight overall conference title, but it wasn't completely satisfying. A dual meet loss to Ledyard in December means Bacon shares the Large Division title with the Colonels.

Griswold coach Dana Cooke went through the seedings prior to the ECC wrestling championship and didn't like what he was seeing.

Despite his team having the leg up by virtue of having beaten Windham in the regular season, the quest for a first ECC Small Division title didn't look good.

"I had Montville and Windham ahead of us so we had to wrestle hard and beat Montville," Cooke said. "Unfortunately, Montville wrestled hard, too, and got a few spots they weren't supposed to."

Once again, the title eluded the Wolverines as Windham (183 points) finished third overall behind Bacon Academy and Ledyard, and Montville (141) placed sixth, one spot ahead of Griswold (1201⁄2). The result gave the Small Division title to the Whippets. The tournament standings count toward the teams' regular season records.