Liverpool — One of the Baldwinsville wrestling team’s primary motivating factor this winter was the memory of dropping last season’s Section III Class AA tournament on its home mats to Liverpool by the margin of a single point.
Having already defeated the Warriors head-to-head on Jan. 20, the Bees got full payback when it went to Liverpool last Saturday and, by a big margin, turned back the Warriors and anyone else in its way to earn a sectional championship.
B’ville finished with 260 points, claiming victories in five of the 15 weight classes and sending nine wrestlers to the championship round. CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt was the closest pursuer, taking second place with 182 points to edge out Liverpool (176 points), who was third.
Kevin Lewis was victorious at 126 pounds. Having pinned Liverpool’s Ryan Blowers in the semifinals, Lewis met with Cicero-North Syracuse’s Joe Mayers in a closely-fought title bout, but Lewis pulled it out by a 3-2 margin.
‘To win at 138 pounds, Jeremy Pond first had to go to overtime in his semifinal with CBA/J-D’s Jonah Cavallo before a takedown produced a 5-1 victory. Having done that, Pond had a bit more breathing space in the title bout, beating Central Square’s Jacob Barrow 8-3.
Thor Sutphen pinned Syracuse Institute of Technology Central’s Nahjir Dean in 32 seconds in the semifinals, but like Lewis and Pond had a tough final, pushed hard by Liverpool’s Jalen Barron before Sutphen, by a 5-3 margin, prevailed.
An interesting battle unfolded at 195 pounds, where Alex Bowen won one semifinal over Isaac Havens (Central Square) 4-3 and Dan Wicks claimed the other semifinal, 4-2, over CBA/J-D’s Ethan Palmer. But the title bout between the B’ville wrestlers wasn’t close, Bowen handling wicks in an 18-3 technical fall.
On the other hand, Mike Spicer didn’t have to worry about teammates to win at 220 pounds. He just went out and, against West Genesee’s Zach Valerino in the championship round, nearly got a technical fall of his own, but settled for a 17-3 victory.
continued — It nearly was six champions, but at 145 pounds David Rush, after pinning Mike Linton (West Genesee) in the semifinals, lost a close 3-2 decision to ITC’s Naseem Fielder in the finals.
Dan Fawwaz, at 182 pounds, was second, having to beat his own teammate, John Petrelli, 4-3, in the semifinals, but getting overwhelmed by Central Square’s Max Emond in a third-period fall. Zach Hahn lost the 113-pound final to CBA/J-D’s Garrett Bauer 13-1.
Petrelli recovered from his defeat to Fawwaz by topping Liverpool’s Nick Thomas 5-0 to finish third at 182. Jacob Cavallo was third at 106 pounds, getting a 16-0 technical fall over CBA/J-D’s Ethan Wells in the consolation bracket final as Jake Naples (120 pounds) edged Wells’ teammate, Shane Smith, 2-0 for third place in that weight class.
Spencer Woods got fourth place at 152 pounds, while Tyler Patrick snared fifth place at 132 pounds by shutting out West Genesee’s Brady Ryan 8-0.
So B’ville will send a large contingent to SRC Arena this Saturday to vie for sectional Division I (Large School) titles. Matches begin at 10 a.m. Only the winners in the 15 weight classes are guaranteed berths in the Feb. 26-27 state meet at Albany’s Times Union Center.
