Fresh off earning the Section III Class AA championship, the Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA sought more glory during Saturday’s overall sectional tournament at SRC Arena, where berths in the Feb. 23-24 state tournament in Albany were on the line.
And three different J-D/CBA wrestlers earned titles, led by Matt Griffin at 106 pounds.
Earning his third sectional title in a row, Griffin pinned Ashton Beebe (Watertown) in 62 seconds and handled Lucas VanTassel (Indian River) in a technical fall before blanking a tough Central Square eighth-grader, Kole Mulhauser, 5-0 in the finals.
Tyler Kellison prevailed at 126 pounds, improving to 43-3 on the season. Kellison pinned Garrett Craft (Rome Free Academy) and got a technical fall over Steve Pascarella (Liverpool) before routing Fulton’s Andru Walts 14-4 in the finals.
Another win came from Garrett Bauer at 138 pounds. Bauer improved his season mark to 33-4 as he took down Kenny Haugabook (Liverpool) with a technical fall and Andy Nicholson (Central Square) 16-7 before a 9-3 win over Fulton’s Quin Burlingham in the finals.
Myles Griffin was the top seed at 120 pounds and favored to win back-to-back sectional titles after winning at 99 pounds a year ago. But after cruising to the title bout, Griffin lost, 6-0, to Indian River’s Logan Patterson, who had pinned Griffin’s teammate, Ethan Wells, in the quarterfinals.
Jake Wright met the same fate at 170 pounds, emerging from a top seed to get to the finals, only to surrender a third-period lead to Fulton’s Cameron Galvin in the championship round and take a 6-5 defeat. Wright has to hope his 22-4 record is good enough for a state meet at-large berth.
Aaron Gucciardi, the Most Outstanding Wrestler in the Feb. 3 sectional Class AA meet, finished fifth at 132 pounds by beating RFA’s James Faso. Adam Honis was the top seed at 195 pounds, but lost in the semifinals to eventual champion Matej Zuvacky (Fulton) 10-4 and had to beat Indian River’s Kyler Martin to salvage fifth place.
At 99 pounds, William Beseth lost in the quarterfinals to the eventual champion, West Genesee’s Nate Wade, with David Beseth beaten in that same round at 113 pounds. Mo El-Hindi lost in the opening round at 182 pounds.
Fayetteville-Manlius saw one wrestler get to the championship round – Ali Salem, at 145 pounds. Salem was the no. 6 seed, but he beat the no. 3 seed, J-D/CBA’s Alikhan Abdullayev, 11-2 in the quarterfinals and edged Fulton’s Adam DeMauro 5-4 in the semifinals.
Only the title bout proved too much for Salem as he lost, 5-1, to West Genesee’s Devin Earl. Still, Salem improved his season mark to 24-12 as Abdullayev gave J-D/CBA a sixth-place finish.
Meanwhile, the Hornets’ Braden Florczyk finished third at 113, recovering from a semifinal defeat to Luca Pirozzolo (Auburn) to get a technical fall over Liverpool’s Jeremy Ianno in the consolation bracket final.
Ben Christopher had a fourth-place finish at 152 pounds, dropping a close 8-5 consolation bracket final to Cicero-North Syracuse’s Anthony Desimone.
At 285 pounds, F-M’s Andrew Testani reached the semifinals, only to get pinned in the third period by the eventual champion, RFA’s Spencer Pisaneschi. Another loss followed, but Testani shut out Liverpool’s Lochlan Fegley 8-0 to finish fifth.
John Scalzetti lost in the opening round at 126, as did Justin Bedell at 132, Luke Ovadias at 195 and Alex Dauksza at 160 pounds, while Charlie Josephson fell in the quarterfinals at 220 pounds.
East Syracuse Minoa had Ameer Ladd finish fourth at 220 for the team’s best finish. Ladd lost, 5-4, to Jon Parrish (Fulton) in the semifinals, but beat Josephson 5-4 and pinned C-NS’s Toryan Jones to get to the consolation bracket final, where he lost, 2-1, to Central Square’s Jordan Pone.
Ali Abdulla, to finish fifth at 160, beat J-D/CBA’s Brandon Milham with a second-period pin, Milham had earlier beaten Abdulla’s brother, Aslan, in that same consolation bracket.
Donovan Marriott got to the semifinals at 113, only to fall to Fulton’s Tom Hughes and eventually finish sixth. Garren Kuney (152) lost a close quarterfinal to Auburn’s Hunter Duger 4-3. Casey O’Donnell (126) fell in the first round, as did Logan Cowell at 285.
