A long holiday break did plenty of good for the Baldwinsville wrestling team after it went 1-4 at its own Dec. 22 dual meet.
The Bees only defeated Holland Patent 48-33 in that dual meet, but took losses to Penfield (54-24), Whitesboro (39-34), Rome Free Academy (52-34) and Owego Free Academy (52-24) as Penfield, with a 5-0 mark, took the title.
Back within Salt City Athletic Conference Metro division competition, though, B’ville met with far more success, taking over last Thursday’s match with Fayetteville-Manlius thanks to seven consecutive victories on the way to drubbing the Hornets 60-24.
They opened with a forfeit to Cole Accordino at 138 pounds before Nate Hahn, at 145 pounds, won a tough 6-3 battle over Justin Bedell. F-M then took the next three bouts, two by forfeit, to go in front 18-9.
But Luke Eberl began the turnaround at 182 pounds, pinning Sawyer Dereszynski with 11 seconds left in their bout, and the Bees went in front with forfeits to Dom Sposato at 195 pounds and Mike Letizia at 220 pounds.
Billy Loadwick, wrestling at 285 pounds, pinned Zack Henderson in 3:27, and two more pins followed, Aiden Cali (99 pounds) finishing off Malik Barr in 64 seconds and Max Naples (106 pounds) getting a fall over Kyle Sykes with 13 seconds left.
Using all six minutes, Mason Clark, at 113 pounds, beat Aurelio Valera 11-6, with Jaden Prince (120 pounds) getting a pin over Allen Hamilton in 81 seconds and, in the 132-pound finale, Liam Fitzgerald pinning Xavier Verela in 1:42.
B’ville went to last Saturday’s Fallen Heroes Tournament at Canastota, where it finished ninth in a 14-team field with 98 points as Jamesville-DeWitt/CBA (245.5 points) earned the top spot.
Cali was the champion at 99, pinning Chase Towers (Cato-Meridian) in 20 seconds and handling Jacob Strain (Adirondack) 9-2 in the semifinals before a close final against J-D/CBA’s Jackson Thomas that went to overtime before a takedown by Cali won it 6-4.
Eberl was third at 182, edging Onondaga-Tully’s Jack Bailey 6-5 in the consolation bracket final. Hahn finished fourth at 145 as Naples beat Canastota’s Keegan Timerman 3-2 for fifth place at 106 and Sposato was fifth at182, pinning Wesley Floor (Dryden) in 83 seconds for that finish.
The Bees have a home match with Syracuse City this Wednesday and a trip to this Saturday’s Cazenovia Invitational.
