If the Baldwinsville wrestling team wanted to concoct a way to start a season, it would look pretty close to what actually took place.
The Bees’ 2008-09 opener last Wednesday night at the Baker High School gym went quite well, as it won the first nine matches against Fayetteville-Manlius and didn’t stop until it had a 54-12 victory in the books.
B’ville is quite motivated going into this season. Even though it went 21-7 last winter, it still finished second to Cicero-North Syracuse (who was 11-13 overall) in the CNY Counties League National division standings.
Head coach Ken Brown has nearly 40 wrestlers on his varsity roster, including Anthony Finocchiaro, who as an eighth-grader reached the 2008 state tournament in Rochester as a wild card.
To begin his freshman campaign, Finocchiaro had to take a forfeit at 119 pounds, but B’ville had secured victory long before that point thanks to its nine-win start.
Tim Hamm, at 140 pounds, opened it up by pinning Rob Powell in 3:44, before Cookie Caloia (135 pounds) battled past Brandon Longden 9-8 and Antonio Peck (140 pounds) beat Ryan Kiggins 8-5.
At 145 pounds, Kurt McArdell shut out Ian Byrnes 7-0 before Nate Russell (152 pounds) recorded a pin of Mike Mannion in 1:01. Sean Hennigan, at 160 pounds, made it six straight wins when he pinned Keith Jones midway through the third period.
Following a fall season as the football quarterback, Niko Manning hit the mat at 171 pounds and matched McArdell with his own 7-0 win, this one over Jordan McDonald. Corey Buyck (189 pounds) then pinned Roger Colon in 1:49 and Kyle Sheridan (215 pounds) took two fewer seconds than Buyck to finish off Steve Breen.
Right after the forfeit to Finocchiaro, John Herholzer closed out the meet when, at 125 pounds, he pinned F-M’s Connor Wingate in just 1:12.
B’ville will visit Central Square this Wednesday before competing in Dexter Saturday at the General Brown Dual Meet.
