As it worked out, the combined CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt wrestling team would join Fayetteville-Manlius as they ventured to Baldwinsville for Saturday’s Section III Class AA championship meet.
Not only did CBA/J-D contend and finish fourth in the team standings, with 179.5 points, but Matt Lauro would earn Most Outstanding Wrestler honors after his victory in the 132-pound division over the MOW of the 2013 sectional AA meet, F-M’s Pat Quinlan.
Lauro had beaten Naseem Fielder (Institute of Technology Central) in a 17-2 technical fall and Mike Mills (Liverpool) 10-5 to reach the finals. Quinlan, the Hornets’ all-time leader in wins, added two more to that total with a pin over Spencer Woods (B’ville) and a 19-4 technical fall over Odae Badwan (West Genesee) in the semifinals.
Then Lauro and Quinlan squared off in the finals, trading points and rallies for six exciting minutes, but it was Lauro hanging on for a 10-9 decision and setting up a juicy rematch this Saturday in the overall sectional Division I (large school) championships at SRC Arena. Dustin Harris will be there, too, for CBA/J-D after finishing fifth behind Lauro and Quinlan.
In the team event, CBA/J-D was right behind Liverpool, who was third with 184 points, as F-M was fifth with 126 points. At the top, it went right to the wire, but B’ville won for the third year in a row, edging Cicero-North Syracuse by a single point, 197.5-196.5.
To contend, CBA/J-D needed lots great efforts, too, including victories from Lauro, Ben Honis (195 pounds) and Matt Griffin (99 pounds). Honis, who is 26-1 this season, never had to go beyond the first period, pinning Alex Bowen (B’ville) in 1:37 and doing the same to beat F-M’s Chris Bortel in 1:51 in the title match after Bortel edged Mark Williamson (Liverpool) 3-2 in the semifinals.
As for Griffin, he pinned F-M’s Ben Nosovitch in 23 seconds to reach the finals against Cicero-North Syracuse’s Ray Sorenson, where he gained another pin, in 1:42, to earn the top spot. Nosovitch settled for fifth place.
F-M’s pair of wins came from Tristan Broddus (145 pounds) and Tim Byrnes (170 pounds). Broddus beat CBA/J-D’s Lucas Rowe 13-3 in the semifinals and, as Rowe went on to finish fourth, Broddus handled B’ville’s Connor Ross 11-5 in the title bout.
Byrnes had a bye until the semifinals, where he dominated CBA/J-D’s George Kassis, 16-2, moving on to a title bout where he pinned West Genesee’s Pete Zholobov with 27 seconds left in the third period. Kassis edged ITC’s Bernard McMillian 6-4 for third place.
In a wild 126-pound division, Arsen Bagiryan beat Anthony Ianno (Liverpool) 3-0 to reach the finals, but lost a close 4-2 decision to West Genesee’s Tyler Heggelke. Bagiryan’s teammate, Cole Murphy, lost to Heggelke in the semifinals, but recovered to edge Ianno 3-2 to finish third as F-M’s Jack Kinsella beat ITC’s Keisean Howard 10-2 for fifth place.
Mark Friske had first-period pins over two Auburn wrestlers, Julian Bernard and Brandon Malone, to reach the 182-pound final, only to have B’ville’s Gunnar Sutphen beat him with a second-period pin. David Sayre, at 220 pounds, finished fourth, while Andrew Zimball (285 pounds) was sixth.
Luke Rufo gave F-M a third-place finish at 138 pounds when he beat CBA/J-D’s Jake Wright 6-1 in the consolation bracket final. Also for F-M, Will Khallil gained fourth place at 106 pounds. Joe Falcone (113 pounds) finished sixth, as did Kyle Elander (160 pounds).
As a strong warm-up for the post-season slate, CBA/J-D took on visiting Adirondack last Tuesday night and led until the latter stages, when the Wildcats won the last four bouts to prevail 41-32.
Harris started the meet with a 4-2 decision over Harry Roberts, and Lauro followed by pinning Jared Johnson midway through the second period.
Adirondack tied it, 9-9, in part because Rowe dropped a 5-3 overtime decision to Dalton Griffith, but then CBA/J-D went back in front when Hamza Khabib (160 pounds) held off Cody Lutz 6-2.
That started a string where Kassis defeated James Lamm 10-4 and Friske pinned Corbin Pritchard in 1:03. Honis (joined in with a pin over Connor Hamilton at the end of the first period as Griffin handled Sean Banks in a 16-0 technical fall.
Banks’ win gave CBA/J-D a 32-17 lead with four bouts left, but a pair of forfeits, combined with quick pins by the last two Wildcat wrestlers, Derek Spann (120 pounds) and Brandon Gaylord (126 pounds), helped Adirondack finish in front. The Wildcats went on to edge Section III Dual Meet champion General Brown on the Lions’ home mat for the sectional Class C title on Saturday.
