In back-to-back weeks, the CBA/Jamesville-DeWitt wrestling team has recorded seminal victories over seminal programs in Central New York.
What started Dec. 7 with a 26-point win over Phoenix, and continued with a victory over Cicero-North Syracuse a night later, continued last Wednesday night when CBA/J-D ventured to Mexico and rolled to a victory there, too, taming the Tigers 58-24.
Never trailing, CBA/J-D opened the Mexico meet at 152 pounds with Alikhan Abdullayev pinning Matthew O’Neill late in the second period. Jake Wright didn’t get a pin at 160 pounds, but he did record a 17-0 technical fall over Dylan Mannise finished off early in the third period.
One of the night’s best bouts came at 182 pounds, where Adam Honis had to go to overtime and pulled out a 4-2 decision over Josh O’Reilly. Then CBA/J-D got 12 free points when Chris Pappas (195 pounds) and Othman El-Hindi (285 pounds) claimed forfeits.
Right before Matt Griffin claimed a forfeit at 113 pounds, Myles Griffin wrestled at 106 pounds and pinned Dean Shambo in 3:39, and CBA/J-D, already with a 38-24 win, would sweep each of the last four bouts, too.
Tyler Kellison, at 126 pounds, began the final push, blanking Austin Reed 9-0, while Garrett Bauer took a forfeit at 132 pounds. Brian Martin waited until the midway point of the third period to pin 138-pound opponent Daniel Dorr as Jonah Cavallo (145 pounds) closed it out by beating Curtis Dimon 12-2.
CBA/J-D would follow this up by going to Indian River for the weekend’s North Country Invitational and finishing fifth in an 18-team field with 169.5 points, while Camden, with 210.5 points, gained first place.
All three CBA/J-D wrestlers that reached the finals won, starting with Myles Griffin at 106 as he pinned Jordan Daniels (Saranac) in the second period of their final. Kellison won at 126 when he got his own second-period fall over Zach Roberts (Ogdensburg) and Cavallo beat Gouverneur’s Derrick Stowell 4-2 in the 145-pound final.
Honis gained third place at 182 when he edged Mexico’s Josh O’Reilly 4-2 in the consolation final. Bauer (132) and Ethan Wells (106) had fourth-place finishes, while Wright pinned Will Hogarth (Watertown IHC) in the third period to get fifth place at 160.
In its last action before the holiday break, CBA/J-D would square off with East Syracuse Minoa, who had gone to Cato-Meridian last Wednesday and routed the Blue Devils 56-15, mainly because it had a full roster.
Chris Todd’s forfeit at 220 began a trend where the Spartans would get free wins from Alex Leo (120), Michael Cox (126) and Jack Meloling (132) in a row, plus Daud Abdullayev (160) and Joe Monteleone (195) later in the meet.
But Jeff Loder did wrestle at 152 and took just 62 seconds to pin Josh Lovejoy, one of three ESM mat victories. Joe Regan, at 138, claimed a 10-9 classic over Ethan Divebliss, while Garren Kuney (145) turned back Ethan Scanlon in a 15-0 technical fall.
During Saturday’s Brett Dixon Memorial Duals at Central Square, ESM rose to a third-place finish, with Ameer Ladd earning Most Outstanding Wrestler honors for his team by moving up to the 285 category and winning all four of his bouts.
Starting out with back-to-back wins, ESM handled APW/Pulaski 53-16 and edged Chittenango 48-42 as Loder got the clinching pin in 30 seconds over Barrett Hoyt. But the Spartans dropped a 47-25 match to Marcellus and, to close the day, lost 59-24 to host Central Square.
Fayetteville-Manlius took on Liverpool last Wednesday night, and nearly had a full roster on hand, but the Warriors proved too good, handing the Hornets a 49-21 defeat.
With the opening bout at 132, F-M lost the first four contests, two of them close ones as Ali Salem (138) fell, 3-1, in overtime to Dylan Wallace right before James Ferro (145) had a 7-4 defeat to Zach Curcie.
It was Dylan Fort, wrestling at 160, that got the Hornets on the board with a tough 4-3 victory over Anthony Piscatelli before Bryce Doane (170) pinned Mohammed Zahran 23 seconds into the second period. Two bouts later, Charlie Josephson worked hard at 195 pounds, but lost, 7-3, to John Sturtz.
F-M would win three more times in the late going. Andrew Testani, at 285, beat Brady Depan 4-1, with Braden Florczyk (106) emerging two bouts later to pin Corey Okun in 93 seconds. Closing out the night, Jon Scalzetti (126) earned an 8-4 decision over Andrew Conner.
This improvement continued to show itself during Saturday’s Phoenix Round Robin, where F-M finished sixth out of eight teams, but with 127.5 points was not far from the battle at the top where Liverpool (153,5 points) edged Baldwinsville (153 points) by half a point for the top spot.
