When the Baldwinsville wrestling team makes their way to Cicero-North Syracuse Saturday for the revamped Section III Dual Meet, it does so with a tournament title close behind them.
Getting individual victories from Jeremy Pond and Dan Fawwaz and sending six wrestlers to the finals, the Bees claimed first place in last Saturday’s Cazenovia Invitational, earning 197.5 points to hold off Adirondack (188 points) for that top spot as Indian River was third with 152 points.
Pond got going at 138 pounds with a second-period fall over Port Byron’s Tyler Parker in the quarterfinals. That was followed by a fall over Cazenovia’s Patrick Nourse in the semifinals and, in the championship round, a dominant effort against Indian River’s Ethan Ruttan that resulted in a 15-4 victory.
To prevail at 182 pounds, Fawwaz started with a pin over Auburn’s Jared Havilland in the quarterfinals late in the second period. A 9-0 shutout over C-NS’s Jack McDonald followed, and in the title bout Fawwaz survived a tough battle with Institute of Technology Central’s Nahjir Dean, prevailing 3-1.
Four other Bees got to the finals, starting with Zach Hahn at 120 pounds as he beat Brett Gaylor (Adirondack) 5-2 in the semifinals, only to fall to Port Byron’s Joe Powers by that exact same score a round later. Tyler Patrick (132 pounds) got past Tyler Pitts (Indian River) 8-2 in the semifinals before a 9-5 defeat to Groton’s Reese Lockwood in the championship round.
At 145 pounds, David Rush got a 6-2 decision over Peter Davis (Homer) to reach the title bout where he dropped a tight 5-4 decision to South Jefferson/Sandy Creek’s Anthony Rasmussen. Mike Spicer edged Nathan Briggs (Onondaga) 3-1 in the 285-pound semifinal before getting pinned in the final by Adirondack’s Andrew Tanner, who is 24-2 this season.
Three other B’ville wrestlers had third-place finishes, starting with Jacob Cavallo, at 113 pounds, who pinned Hunter Carr (Adirondack) midway through the third period of their consolation bracket final.
Jake Naples matched Cavallo at 126 pounds right down to the third-period pin in the third-place match over Cazenovia’s Will Khalil, though Cavallo did it in 4:56 to Naples’ 4:59. Thor Sutphen, beaten in the 195-pound semifinal, rebounded to win his consolation bracket final 12-2 over Oxford’s Dakota Freidel.
Capping off this effort, Dom Sposato earned fifth place at 160 pounds with a first-period pin over Onondaga’s Kyler Martin.
