To a season that already boasted plenty of individual and collective accomplishments, the Marcellus wrestling team could add the championship it won Saturday in a hard-fought Onondaga High School League Liberty/Patriot League Tournament at Skaneateles.
Picking up 228 points, the Mustangs held off the Cazenovia Lakers, who finished second with 222 points, with the host Skaneateles Lakers earning 180 points, as three different Marcellus wrestlers – Cahal Donovan (99 pounds), Zach Ruggles (126 pounds) and Nate Long (160 pounds) – won their respective weight classes.
Long’s road to the 160-pound title included a first-period pin over Cody Fredericks (Chittenango) and a 7-0 shutout over Cazenovia’s Alex Nannery in the semifinals.
Once in the championship round, Long met his own teammate, Nate Lukins, who had beaten Danell Trammell (Onondaga) 8-4 and pinned Ben Nicholas (Chittenango) in 2:16 during his early-round bouts. Long quickly took control and, midway through the third period, pinned Lukins.
Donovan pinned Hunter White (Cato-Meridian) and Ethan Straub (Hannibal) to reach the 99-pound final, where he never let Port Byron’s Joe Powers get on the board and claimed an 8-0 shutout.
Meanwhile, at 126, Ruggles, like Donovan a top seed, pinned Danny O’Connell (Skaneateles) and beat David Villegas (Institute of Technology Central) 6-1 in the semifinal. The title bout proved easier against another Port Byron wrestler, Austin Parker, as Ruggles beat him 11-3.
At 106, Alex Czerniak pinned Tyler Parker (Port Byron) and reached the finals, only to fall to Hannibal’s Zach Williams 3-0. Riley Donovan, at 113 pounds, knocked off top seed Will Khalil (Cazenovia) 6-2 for valuable points in the semifinals before a 6-5 overtime defeat to Skaneateles’ Max Collier in the title bout. It was Collier’s 100th career win.
Sam Rice took a quarterfinal defeat at 120 pounds, but breezed through the consolation bracket and beat Cazenovia’s Matt McLaughlin 4-3 to finish third, gaining more valuable team points for the Mustangs.
Ben Hood (132 pounds) made it to the semifinals, lost to Josh Brillo (Skaneateles) 5-3, but then won twice more and, in the consolation bracket final, edged ITC’s Keshon Howard 6-4 to match Rice’s third-place effort.
At 145 pounds, Nick Distefano rebounded from a semifinal defeat and also got to third place when he stopped Jordan-Elbridge’s Tyler Steves 4-1 in his consolation bracket final. Alexsandr Popov (285 pounds) finished third when he pinned J-E’s Lester Bozeat at the end of the second period, leaving Bozeat in fourth place, which tied Steves for the Eagles’ best finish at this meet.
Kevin Morrissey, after a 13-5 semifinal defeat to Chris Wein (Cato-Meridian), got two wins and shut out Alex Curr (Cazenovia) 5-0, one more instance of Marcellus getting key points against Cazenovia. Tristan Dugar took fourth place at 138 pounds, while Cory Garvey made it to sixth place at 195 pounds.
Marcellus had actually wrestled twice at the Section III Dual Meet Jan. 24 at Cicero-North Syracuse. Following its first-round loss to Cortland, the Mustangs had a consolation match against Canastota and was competitive there before taking a 41-32 defeat to the Raiders.
Cahal Donovan got his team on the board with a 33-second pin over Darren Domenicone, after which Czerniak earned a 15-0 technical fall over Colby Stevens.
Rice and Riley Donovan lost close decisions, but Josh Widrick (126) took a forfeit and Ruggles pinned Andy Marshall in 79 seconds, putting Marcellus in front 23-12.
Canastota won the next four bouts, only to see the Mustangs recover with Lukins beating Jacob Sherman 5-2 and Morrissey claiming a forfeit to give Marcellus a 32-29 lead with two matches left. But Popov and Garvey both were unable to get out of the first period of their respective bouts, allowing the Raiders to prevail.
