Whether the matches were quick and one-sided, or long and tough, the Liverpool wrestling team had all the answers to the questions West Genesee provided.
And the end result, in last Thursday night’s weather-delayed CNY Counties League opener, was a 66-9 rout by the Warriors over the Wildcats in Camillus, a tidy follow-up to Liverpool’s strong fifth-place finish in the Dec. 6 Andersen Tournament at Cicero-North Syracuse.
Of the 15 bouts, Liverpool prevailed in 13 of them, and only one was a forfeit, to Sean Nadeau at 113 pounds. Everything else was earned on the mat.
Six times, the Warriors got first-period pins, none quicker than Jalen Barron, at 170 pounds, finishing off Shayne Middleton in 54 seconds. It happened in every bout from 120 to 132 pounds, starting with Jerry Nash pinning Christian Grome in 1:20, Anthony Ianno (126 pounds) stopping Jake Jones in 1:43 and Saleem Asfour (132 pounds) taking 1:49 to pin Jon Stefano.
To cap this off, Mike Mills, wrestling at 145 pounds, earned his fall over Joe Malinowski in 1:26, but it didn’t stop there, either, as freshman Jose Cavelino (99 pounds) introduced himself with a second-period pin over Nyeem Hameed and Alan Cary (220 pounds) pinned Keisean Canery with 40 seconds left in their match.
Other bouts proved much closer. Though Jack Ragonese (182 pounds) lost, 4-1, to Dalton Elias, Peter Nash, at 138 pounds, outscored Odae Badwan 10-6, and Anthony Richardson won a tough 152-pound match over Yvan Kouakou 8-6.
Also, Zach Khatib, wrestling at 160 pounds, held off Liam Kotas in an exciting 11-8 match, while Nate Knox (195 pounds) allowed a single escape to Pete Zhobolov, but still prevailed 3-1.
Cicero-North Syracuse had its league opener against Central Square postponed, but that has not yet been made up. But as the Northstars hosted its annual Blindmen’s JV Tournament, Liverpool went east to participate in the Herkimer Invitational.
And the Warriors did quite well, with individual titles from Sean Nadeau (113 pounds), Audey Ashkar (120 pounds) and David Carnie (285 pounds) on the way to a fourth-place finish in the 18-team field with 154 points. Phoenix (192.5 points) won, with Vernon-Verona-Sherrill (170 points) holding off Camden (165 points) for second place.
Nadeau, in his semifinal, pinned VVS’s Damien Mussig in 1:02 and then, in the final, held off Little Falls’ Neiko Scarano 4-2. Ashkar got a second-period technical fall over Tyler Kellison (Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA) and a 14-3 semifinal romp over Poland’s Albert Amacher before his title match, a strong effort where Ashkar handled Herkimer’s T.J. Philpotts in a 9-3 decision.
As for Carnie, he rolled to three straight pins at 285, taking just one minute to finish off Poland’s Jacob Rommell and 1:02 to pin Little Falls’ Dakotah Redner, which led to a final where Carnie waited until the latter stages of the second period to pin Phoenix’s Derrick Button.
Only Peter Nash lost his final, at 120, and even that was a tight bout, a 2-1 defeat to Phoenix’s Brad Dietz. Meanwhile, Mike Mills got to third place at 138, beating Camden’s Dan Alberico in the consolation bracket final, and Jaylen Barron finished fourth at 170.
On Wednesday night, Liverpool has its home opener against Fayetteville-Manlius, and goes from there to Saturday’s Phoenix Round Robin against the likes of Baldwinsville and Cortland, along with the host Firebirds. C-NS, meanwhile, is set to host Auburn on Wednesday and then go to the North Country Invitational at Indian River on Friday and Saturday.
