Continuing to show great form, the Marcellus wrestling team would beat back the challenges from 13 other challengers and prevail in last Saturday’s Port Byron Mid-Winter Tournament.
The Mustangs picked up 205 points, enough to fend off Cicero-North Syracuse, who with 163.5 points edged out Skaneateles (161 points) for the runner-up spot, and led by Riley Donovan, who was named the meet’s Most Outstanding Wrestler.
Competing at 120 pounds, Donovan pinned Max McDermott (Mynderse Academy) in the second period of the quarterfinal and then beat NelloAlteri (Watertown IHC) 7-2 in the semifinals before a tough title bout where he held off Cazenovia’s Will Khalil in an 8-6 decision.
In all, three Mustangs won, including Ben Hood at 132 pounds. Hood routed Trent Youngs (Mynderse) 18-3 in the semifinals and then got past Moravia’s Cody Lamphler 7-4 in the title bout. Kern Linder earned the 220-pound championship by pinning T.J. Greenfield (Skaneteles) early in the third period of their semifinal and then topping C-NS’s Chris Denny by an 8-1 margin a round later.
A quartet of Marcellus wrestlers had runner-up finishes, starting with Alex Czerniak at 113 pounds, who lost to C-NS’s Tyler Harrington 17-4 in the finals. Sam Rice, in the 126-pound title bout, lost to Skaneateles’ Joey Brillo 5-0 in their final.
Nick Distefano held off APW/Pulaski’s Cole Losito 4-2 in the 145-pound semifinal, but he lost the final to another Skaneateles wrestler, Mike Goetzmann, 7-4. Garrett Furna pinned Connor Caratolozzo (Mynderse) in the third period of their semifinal, only to lose the title bout to North Rose Wolcott’s Dominic Eriksen in a second-period pin.
Behind Hood at 132, Josh Widrick beat James Ossont (Otselic Valley) 5-2 to finish third, while Sean Madden got fourth place at 152 pounds. Casey Ezzo got sixth place at 160 pounds.
Before all this, the Mustangs returned to OHSL Liberty division competition last Wednesday night and led from start to finish against Syracuse’s Institute of Technology Central, eventually gaining a 53-21 victory over the Eagles.
Following a forfeit to Donovan at 120, Rice, in the first contested bout at126, pinned ITC’s Anthony Morales in 42 seconds. Hood followed up with a second-period fall over Mehki Shepherd as Tristan Duger (138 pounds) got a 7-1 victory over Ben Tinelli.
DiStefano lost a close 10-8 decision to Naseem Fielder, but two bouts later Nate Lukins (170 pounds) won a tough 6-5 match over Nahjir Dean. Matt Kazor (195 pounds) claimed a forfeit before Linder’s first-period fall over Nazir Evans.
Wrestling at 285 pounds, Alexsandr Popov needed just 49 seconds to pin Donovan Lynn, while Czerniak closed out the match at 113 by prevailing over Hoang Nguyen in a 16-1 technical fall.
West Genesee, who took part in the Brett Dixon Memorial Duals at Central Square on Dec. 29-30, had to face Baldwinsville last Wednesday night and only managed a handful of mat victories in a 62-15 defeat to the Wildcats.
Then the Wildcats were seventh out of 10 sides in the Fallen Heroes Tournament held Friday and Saturday at Canastota High School, getting its best finish from Ethan Coates, at 285, who lost his semifinal to Nathan Briggs (Onondaga) 5-1, but won the consolation bracket final over CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt’s Mingus Betsey 2-0.
Mike Linton, at 145, took fourth place, with Liam Kotas getting to that same spot at 160. Cole Wade gained sixth place at 126 as Canastota’s Nick Rouse, who won at 120, and Chittenango’s Antonio Cutrie, who took top honors at 220, shared Most Outstanding Wrestler honors.
