Onondaga — An entire winter of work for wrestlers from Cazenovia and Chittenango would culminate in their appearances in Saturday’s Section III Division II championships at Onondaga Community College’s SRC Arena.
For the Lakers, Kevin Frega led the charge. Entering as the no. 3 seed at 195 pounds, Frega took just 41 seconds to pin his opening-round opponent, Justin Kopet (Dolgeville), and then defeated Cansatota’s Kris Rutherford before a semifinal defeat to Sandy Creek’s Joe Benedict with a second-period fall.
But Frega still recovered to reach the consolation bracket final by topping Mexico’s Brandon Gracey, and then, against General Brown’s Jacob Joanette, closed his high school career with a second-period pin to gain third place and improve his record to 27-3.
By contrast, Alex Curr entered as the no. 3 seed at 182 pounds, and appeared to catch a break when he got a first-round bye, something neither of the top two seeds, Joe Hennessey (Adironack) and Brett Finch (Camden), enjoyed. But it did little to help Curr, who lost his quarterfinal to Phoenix’s Tom Gandino 7-4 and then dropped a consolation-bracket match to Cortland’s Dakotah Miller 3-1 in overtime.
Jacob Wells, injured for most of the season, wrestled at 106 pounds and dropped his opening-round match to Mexico’s Jared Gates 4-1. Will Khalil was an at-large entry at 120 pounds and lost in a technical fall to Adirondack’s Brendan Gaylord and Matt McLaughlin (126) lost a narrow 3-2 to Skaneateles’ Joey Brillo.
Chittenango, meanwhile, had three wrestlers in the sectional meet, none with a better position than Antonio Cutrie, the no. 4 seed at 220 pounds. But after Cutrie pinned Kern Linder (Marcellus) in the opening round, he lost his quarterfinal to Homer’s Dylan Hotchkiss.
Cutrie would go 2-1 in the consolation bracket, following a win over Robert Gage (Hannibal) with a loss to Tom Randall (South Lewis) before he finished on a strong note, beating Holland Patent’s Jordan Reinhardt for a fifth-place spot on the podium.
continued — Despite this, it was Connor Fredericks, at 170 pounds, earning the Bears’ best finish. Having lost, 8-2, the quarterfinals to eventual champion Alex Herringshaw (Holland Patent), Fredericks beat McCaffrey Carroll (Copenhagen-Beaver River) 7-1 and then topped Doug Simmons (Canastota) 5-4 to reach the third-place match, where he lost to Camden’s Joe Musachio 3-1 and settled for fourth.
Abram Miles, fresh off a sectional Class B title earned at 285 pounds, tried for a deep run here, too, only to get upended in the opening round in a 5-4 overtime defeat to Vernon-Verona-Sherrill’s Troy Peters. Cory Fredericks joined Curr at 182, but got paired against Finch and was knocked out in a first-period fall.