Canastota — It proved quite a good opening week of 2016 for the Baldwinsville wrestling team, capped by its rise to the top spot during last weekend’s Fallen Heroes Tournament at Canastota High School.

The Bees had tuned up by going to Camillus last Wednesday night and dominating West Genesee, defeating the Wildcats 62-15. Then it went to Canastota, where 10 teams were on hand, and B’ville would prove best.

Earning a total of 241 points, the Bees held off Camden, who was second with 232.5 points, and CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt, who took third with 213.5 points. And it did so despite having just one individual champion.

Alex Bowen, wrestling at 195 pounds, started in the quarterfinals by pinning Camden’s Kyle Seymore in 53 seconds. Then he shut out Canastota’s Kris Rutherford 10-0 to set up a final against teammate Dan Wicks, who had edged CBA/J-D’s Ethan Palmer 10-9 in the other semifinal. Bowen won a tough 2-0 decision over Wicks.

Three other B’ville wrestlers lost close final matches. At 113 pounds, Zach Hahn survived a 9-8 semifinal with Coby Stevens (Canastota) to get to the title bout, only to fall to CBA/J-D’s Garrett Bauer 5-2.

At 132 pounds, Jeremy Pond held off Josh Mayden (Camden) 8-6 and then topped his teammate, Tyler Patrick, in a second-period technical fall but lost to Ogdensburg Free Academy’s Tanner Lapiene 3-0 in the finals. David Rush rolled past Shane Moore (Onondaga/Tully) and Mike Linton (West Genesee) on his way to a title bout where he took a 9-4 defeat to Camden’s Dan Alberico.

Dan Fawwaz beat Isaiah Domena (Canastota) 10-2 in the 182-pound semifinals, but had to forfeit his championship-round bout against Camden’s Brett Finch.

At 220 pounds, Mike Spicer got pins over Nolan Allen (Chittenango) in 44 seconds) and Tanner Folk (Tioga) in 1:46, only to get pinned in the final by Chittenango’s Antonio Cutrie, who shared Most Outstanding Wrestler honors with Canastota’s Nick Rouse, the 120-pound champion.

continued — Jacob Cavallo took third place at 106 pounds by edging Tioga’s Jacob Welch 1-0. By that same margin, Jake Naples topped another Tioga wrestler, Collin Elston, to finish third at 120 pounds as Kevin Lewis, at 126 pounds, needed an overtime takedown to top Camden’s Colby Johnson 3-1 and get his own third-place finish.

John Petrelli gained fourth place at 182, dropping a close consolation bracket final to Camden’s Dan Birmingham 4-2.

Alex Candee (152 pounds) pinned Tyler Daviau (Chittenango) in 15 seconds for fifth place, while Thor Sutphen (170 pounds) got a pin over Tioga’s Trey Floyd to also finish fifth. Tyler Patrick (132 pounds) and Tom Fuzia (138 pounds) each had sixth-place efforts.

All of this followed the meet against West Genesee, where the Bees won 10 of the 11 contested bouts, the only defeat coming in a narrow decision at 160, where Candee lost, 8-7, to Liam Kotas.

But Patrick beat Brady Ryan by that same 8-7 margin as Fawwaz turned back Shayne Middleton 8-4. Two other Bees recorded shutouts, with Hahn blanking Tanner Buza 8-0 and Spicer handling Zach Valerino 12-0.

Seven other bouts ended in pins, with Cavallo, Naples, Lewis, Sutphen, Bowen, John Eustice (138) and Spencer Woods (152) getting those falls. Bowen needed just 51 seconds to finish off Randall Ouimet, with Naples pinning Charlie Tran in 1:08 and Woods doing the same to Mike Linton in 1:20.

B’ville gets its turn to host a dual meet this Saturday, welcoming the likes of CBA/J-D and Phoenix, this after a Wednesday-night meet against visiting Auburn.