For most of the winter, Solvay High School senior Jonah Cavallo toiled for the Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA wrestling team, donning its black singlet and winning 27 of his 32 bouts.
However, when Cavallo reached Saturday night’s Section III Division I final at SRC Arena, Cavallo returned to the blue-and-orange colors of his beloved Bearcats and, in doing so, earned the 145-pound championship plus a trip to next weekend’s state championships in Albany.
Cavallo was not the top seed at 145 – Baldwinsville’s David Rush held that spot. Yet after an 11- 1 win over Hunter Duger (Auburn) and 11-2 romp over West Genesee star Devin Earl, Cavallo faced Rush and was tied, 2-2, before a third-period reversal got Cavalllo in front, and he held on for a 4-3 decision to earn the sectional crown and improve his record to 30-5.
Also donning the Solvay colors for the final was Zach Langdon, who at 170 pounds was jus the no. 5 seed and barely got past his first match with Liverpool’s Will Ronan, 5-2, but then beat top seed Bryce Doane (Fayetteville-Manlius) 6-3, setting up a close final where Langdon fell just short in a 5-2 loss to Fulton’s Andrew Yablonski.
All told, the J-D/CBA side had nine top-three finishers, leading to 190.5 points and a second-place finish in the Division I team race behind Fulton’s 24 1 points.
West Genesee, meanwhile, had 54 points for ninth place and did not have a wrestler each any of the sectional Division I finals, yet still had five place-finishers, including Earl, who recovered from his loss to Cavallo to finish fourth at 145.
Victor Elias, the no. 3 seed at 160 pounds, lost his semifinal to J-D/CBA’s Jake Wright 13-0, but beat Marc Darcangelo (Rome Free Academy) 3-1 before a defeat in the consolation bracket final to Fulton’s Dylan DeMauro left Elias in fourth place.
Chandler McAvan turned a quarterfinal defeat into a fourth-place finish at 195 ponds by pinning Joe Monteleone (East Syracuse Minoa) in the third period and prevailing when Indian River’s Chris Davis took a medical default. In the third-place match, McAvan got close against Fulton’s Jon Parrish, but lost, 5-1.
Nate Wade, at 99 pounds, lost in the quarterfinals, but went 2-1 in the consolation bracket, beating Dario Ciciarelli (Cicero-North Syracuse) 3-0 to finish fifth. At 170, Griffin Sasso beat Fombo Azah (Carthage) 4-2, but lost, 5-2, to Doane and took sixth place.
Brady Ryan dropped his 126-pound quarterfinal to Indian River’s Tyler Pitts 7-0 Ejarian Burgin (120 pounds) lost in the first round to F-M’s Zach Colon, with Ahmad Wady (220 pounds) doing the same against Cicero-North Syracuse’s Christian Anoceto.
Over in Division II (small schools), Marcellus also could not get any of its wrestlers to the finals, yet still got a couple of third-place finishes and five top-six on its way to 64.5 points and 11th place in the team standings, with Central Valley getting 176 points to take team honors.
At 120 pounds, Alex Czerniak reached the semifinals, only to take a first-period loss to Phoenix’s Cahal Donovan, the eventual champion. Recovering from that, Czerniak beat Hunter Williams (Camden) 4-1 and, in the consolation bracket final, shut out Adirondack’s Keagen Case 7-0 to finish third.
Kern Linder matched that effort at 220 pounds, pinning Josh Greenwood (Cooperstown-Beaver River) before a 9-2 semifinal loss to Chittenango’s Antonio Cutrie. Then Linder blanked Max Liebl (Canastota) 10-0 before topping Skaneateles star T.J. Greenfield 7-1 in the third-place bout.
From the no. 3 seed at 126 pounds, Riley Donovan handled Fred Amacher (Poland) with a technical fall and Will Khalil (Cazenovia) with a pin before a 5-2 semifinal defeat to Adirondack’s Kevin Spann. A 3-1 defeat to Austin Reed (Mexico) forced Donovan into the fifth-place match, where he won when Canastota’s Colby Stevens (Canastota) had to default due to injury.
Also finishing fifth, Corey Garvey did so at 195 pounds, losing in his quarterfinal, but then winning two of three consolation bracket bouts, edging Justin Kopet (Dolgeville) 2-1 and, in the fifth-place bout, beating General Brown’s Gavin Kovarik when Oneida’s Isaiah Demoda had to default.
Nick Distefano, at 145 pounds, lost his quarterfinal to CVA star Tanner Cook in a 26-second pin, and then went 1-2 in the consolation bracket to earn sixth place. Riley LaFrance lost his first-round bout at 132 pounds.
Jordan-Elbridge had Jared Alpha wrestle at 106 and take a first-round defeat to Cato-Meridian’s Hunter White. Max Bondgren, at 195, fell in the first round to Joey McIntyre (Skaneateles) in an 80-second fall.
