Troyan Jones’ victory at 220 pounds helped the Cicero-North Syracuse wrestling team rise to third place in last Saturday’s Section III Class AA championship meet at West Genesee High School.
Jones was just 19-14 on the season heading into the sectional meet, but he pinned West Genesee’s Randell Ouimet in 3:51 in the quarterfinals and then claimed a 12-10 thriller over Syracuse’s Mykle Thomas in the semifinals.
This set up a title bout between Jones and Baldwinsville’s Gunnar Hunt, who had pinned Jones in a bout on Jan.17. That didn’t happen here, though, as Jones held on for a 4-3 decision over Hunt.
Overall, C-NS picked up 164 points, holding off Rome Free Academy (160 points) for the third spot. Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA won with 235.5 points and host WG was second with 204 points. Liverpool finished sixth with 127 points.
Anthony Desmione nearly won a title for the Northstars at 152 pounds, dropping a 5-4 decision in the finals to RFA’s Steve Hildenbrandt. Nathan Osborne reached the 120-pound final, only to fall 6-2 to J-D/CBA standout Myles Griffin.
At 182 pounds, C-NS’s Julian Zavaglia pinned RFA’s Jon Walston in 47 seconds to get to the finals, where he lost, 10-3, to WG’s Cole Wade. Dario Ciciarelli made it to the 106-pound final, only to run into J-D/CBA star Matt Griffin and suffer a 66-second pin.
Three Liverpool wrestlers got to the championship round, but none of them prevailed.
Anthony Piscatelli had the closest call at 160 pounds, staying close in the final with WG’s Victor Elias, but taking a 5-2 defeat. It was nearly the same at 113 pounds as Jeremy Ianno battled with Braden Florczyk (113 pounds), but lost a 9-5 decision.
Steve Pascarella pinned another WG wrestler, Ejarian Burgin, in 2:35 to reach the 126-pound final, but ran into J-D/CBA’s Tyler Kellison, who beat him in a 17-2 technical fall.
Two other Warriors had third-place finishes. Corey Okun (106 pounds) pinned RFA’s Justin Wright in 77 seconds in their consolation bracket final as Ben Michalowski, at 170 pounds, prevailed 4-2 over Syracuse’s Abednego Johnson.
In the 99-pound consolation bracket final, C-NS’s Harrison Portorsnok won a tough 4-2 battle over J-D/CBA’s William BeSeth for the Northstars’ lone third-place finish. Brian Besanson (113), Michael Livesay (152) and Jack McDonald (195 pounds) each finished fourth.
Liverpool saw Kenny Haugabook (138 pounds) and Ron Cyr (182 pounds) each finish fourth. The fifth-place bout at 120 saw Jacob Ianno beat C-NS’s Jacob Montminy 9-3 as Lochlan Fegley (285 pounds) pinned F-M’s Zach Henderson to get his own fifth-place finish.
On the C-NS side, Josh Brighton (138) earned fifth place with a 10-7 decision over B’ville’s Nate Hahn as Isaiah Wahdan (145 pounds) pinned Liverpool’s John Bill in 2:17, matching fifth-place honors with Robert Salvett at 170 as Salvett pinned RFA’s Tejas Desai.
With their sixth-place finishes, the Northstars’ Jacob Montminy (120) and Eric Salenski (126), plus the Warriors’ John Sturtz (195), all advanced to this Saturday’s sectional Division I tournament at SRC Arena.
